Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday praised the speed with which his troops occupied new areas in neighboring Ukraine.
Speaking to schoolchildren, he said Ukraine’s attempt to halt the advance of Russian troops in the Donbass with a counterattack in the Kursk region had been in vain.
“We are not talking about advancing 200 or 300 meters,” Putin said, according to Russian news agencies. “We have not had this kind of pace of the offensive in Donbass for a long time.”
On his way to Mongolia, Putin stopped in the Siberian republic of Tuva to teach a new subject introduced after the start of the war: “Conversations on important issues.” The lessons, peppered with propaganda, are intended to familiarize children with the Kremlin’s political course.
Putin repeated the claim that the war he ordered was in defense of his own country. “We are protecting both the people living in Donbass and the future of Russia, because we cannot afford to have hostile structures created under our noses that harbor aggressive plans against our country,” he said. Putin was apparently referring to Kiev’s hopes of joining NATO.
Putin called the Ukrainian soldiers involved in the counterattack in the Kursk region “bandits” with whom Russia must deal.
Ukrainian forces still hold the initiative in the Kursk region, partly because Russia has refrained from withdrawing soldiers from the main attack area in Donetsk to repel the attack.