Putin Says Russia’s Military Has Momentum in Ukraine, Poised to Meet Moscow’s Goals

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)
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Putin Says Russia’s Military Has Momentum in Ukraine, Poised to Meet Moscow’s Goals

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) talk after an expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Board at the Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2023. (EPA/ Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin)

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that his country's military has seized the initiative in Ukraine after repelling a monthslong counteroffensive and is well positioned to achieve Moscow's goals.

Putin's spoke at a meeting with top military brass a day after he presented documents to Russia’s Central Election Commission to seek reelection in the March presidential vote.

“Our troops are holding the initiative,” the Russian leader said. “We are effectively doing what we think is needed, doing what we want. Where our commanders consider it necessary to stick to active defenses they are doing so, and we are improving our positions where it's needed.”

The Russian leader praised Russia's troops for beating back Ukrainian attacks during the counteroffensive that started in June.

“The enemy has suffered heavy casualties and to a large extent wasted its reserves while trying to show at least some results of its so-called counteroffensive to its masters,” Putin said, adding that “the myth about invulnerability of Western weapons also has collapsed.”

“All attempts by the West to deliver us a military defeat, a strategic defeat, were shattered by the courage and fortitude of our soldiers, the growing might of our armed forces and the potential of our military industries,” Putin said.

During the counteroffensive that began in early June, Ukrainian forces have failed to make any significant gains as they faced multi-echeloned Russian defensive lines, including sprawling minefields.

Speaking at the same meeting, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian minefields spread for 7,000 kilometers (more than 4,300 miles).

Shoigu said that 650,000 Russian soldiers have received combat experience in Ukraine, turning the Russian army into “the best prepared and capable army in the world, armed with advanced weapons that have been tested in combat.”

“Despite the sanctions, we produce more high-tech weapons than NATO countries,” Shoigu said.

He declared that the Russian arms industries have increased the output of tanks by 5.6 times, the number of drones built by 16.8 times and bolstered the production of artillery munitions by 17.5 times since the start of what the Kremlin calls “the special military operation” in Ukraine.

Shoigu said the military has received more than 1,500 new and modernized tanks, more than 2,500 armored infantry vehicles and 237 new planes and helicopters.

The minister said Russia's armed forces were finalizing preparations for putting the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile on combat duty and also building the infrastructure for the deployment of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon atomic-powered, nuclear-armed underwater drone.

Shoigu charged that military personnel from NATO countries operate Ukraine’s air defense systems, multiple rocket launchers and tactical missile systems and also help plan military operations and train troops. He didn’t provide specifics to support his claim.

While hailing the military's performance, Putin noted the need to improve military communications, streamline the use of intelligence and counter-artillery means, and increase supplies of precision munitions and drones. He added that Russia also needs to expand the capability of its satellite assets.

Putin particularly emphasized the importance of bolstering the country's nuclear forces, saying that their role has increased amid “the changing character of military threats and the emergence of new military-political risks.”

Putin reaffirmed his long-held argument that he sent Russian troops into Ukraine to counter security threats to Russia posed by Western plans to incorporate the country in NATO. Ukraine and its Western allies have denounced the move by Moscow as an unprovoked act of aggression.

“The West isn't abandoning its strategy of containment of Russia and its aggressive goals in Ukraine,” Putin said. “Well, we also aren't going to abandon the goals of the special military operation.”

He declared that Russia is open for talks to end the conflict but warned that “we won't give up what is ours.”

“If they want to talk, let them enter the talks,” Putin said. “But we will proceed from our interests.”



Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
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Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed on Saturday what he said was the complete failure of an offensive by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region after Moscow said they had been expelled from the last village they had been holding.

Russia also confirmed for the first time that North Korean soldiers have been fighting alongside Russian troops in Kursk, with the chief of the military General Staff praising their "heroism" in helping to drive out the Ukrainians.

However, Kyiv denied that its forces had been expelled from Kursk and said they were also still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces seized a swathe of territory in Kursk region last August in a surprise incursion that embarrassed Putin. Russian forces, later reinforced by North Korean troops, have been trying ever since to drive them out.

Putin, speaking amid intensified diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to end the Ukraine conflict, said the expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Russian soil opened the way for further Russian successes inside Ukraine.

"The Kyiv regime's adventure has completely failed," Putin said in video footage released by the Kremlin that showed him receiving a report from the head of Russia's general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

"The full defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border region creates conditions for further successful actions by our forces on other important parts of the front," Putin added.

Gerasimov told Putin that the last occupied settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, had been "liberated from Ukrainian units" on Saturday.

"Thus, the defeat of the armed formations of the Ukrainian armed forces that had invaded the Kursk region has been completed," Gerasimov said.

The Ukrainian military, in a statement later posted on social media platform Telegram, said its forces were continuing their operations in some districts of Kursk region.

Ukraine also denied Gerasimov's assertion that all Ukrainian "sabotage groups" had been "liquidated" in Belgorod region, where Kyiv's forces launched an incursion last month.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield assertions of either side.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the armed forces were now helping authorities in the Kursk region to restore "peaceful life" and to remove mines planted there.

NORTH KOREANS

Gerasimov praised the North Korean officers and soldiers' contribution in Kursk, saying they had shown "high professionalism, fortitude, courage and heroism", fulfilling combat tasks "shoulder to shoulder" with Russian servicemen.

North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, Ukrainian officials said. Lacking armored vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.

Russia had previously neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops in Kursk.

Russia's military cooperation with North Korea has grown rapidly since Moscow became internationally isolated after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv says North Korea has supplied Russia with vast amounts of artillery shells as well as rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles, which Moscow began using for strikes against Ukraine at the end of 2023.

Russia and North Korea have denied weapons transfers, which would violate UN embargoes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had hoped his forces' seizure of Russian territory would give him a bargaining chip in any future talks to end the war in his country.

Zelenskiy held what the White House described as a "very productive" meeting with US President Donald Trump on Saturday in Rome, where both leaders were attending the funeral of Pope Francis.

Trump is pressuring Zelenskiy to agree to give up some Ukrainian territory to help end the three-year war that has caused large-scale casualties and devastation in cities, towns and villages across Ukraine.