Moscow.Conquering Donbas in eastern Ukraine is Russia’s “number one priority,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, saying his military was repelling Ukrainian forces in the Kursk border region.

“The enemy’s objective [al atacar la región rusa de Kursk] “It was to make us nervous and restless to redeploy our troops from one area to another and to stop our offensive in key areas, in particular in Donbas, the liberation of which is our number one priority,” the head of state said at an economic forum in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East.

Since autumn 2022, Russia has been claiming the annexation of the two regions of Ukrainian Donbas, Luhansk, which it occupies almost entirely, and Donetsk, of which it occupies part.

Vladimir Putin has set as a condition, before any peace talks, that kyiv completely withdraw from these two areas, as well as the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, which it also claims to annex despite only controlling in part.

An unacceptable demand for Ukraine and its Western allies, who see this as a de facto capitulation.

Despite a lack of men and weapons, Ukrainian forces nevertheless launched a wide-ranging offensive on August 6 in the Russian border region of Kursk, where they occupied hundreds of square kilometres.

One of kyiv’s stated goals was to force Russia to redeploy its troops in the Donbas.

But Moscow has not adopted this strategy, instead continuing to push in the direction of Petrovsk, in the Donetsk region, a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in this part of the country.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has repeatedly claimed responsibility for the capture of new towns in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, the latest of which was Karlivka, some 30 km from Pokrovsk, on Wednesday.

“Has it worked? [la táctica ucrania]”No!” Putin said. “On the contrary, the enemy has weakened at key points and our troops have stepped up offensive operations,” the president said.

In the Kursk region, Russian forces have “stabilised the situation and have begun to gradually repel” the Ukrainian army, the Russian president said.

In the eastern Donetsk region, a 74-year-old man was killed in a Russian attack in Kostiantynivka, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, one man has been killed by Ukrainian shelling, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Ukrainian authorities also cancelled a train on Thursday that was supposed to transport people fleeing the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk over fears of a Russian attack.

Open to negotiate

As for possible peace talks, Putin also said on Thursday that he is ready to negotiate with kyiv if Ukraine asks for it, after Moscow ruled out doing so precisely because of the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk.

“Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so,” he said at the Vladivostok forum.

“If there is a desire to negotiate” on the part of Ukraine, “we will not reject it,” he stressed, adding that negotiations should be based on the conclusions of talks held in Istanbul in the spring of 2022.

Moscow claims that a compromise was reached at the time, but that the Western powers forced kyiv to reject the agreement. The texts in question were never published, and kyiv denies this version of events.

For months, Russia has been trying to portray Ukraine as a party to the conflict that does not want to negotiate.

In June, Putin said he would only end the conflict if Ukraine gave up its ambition to one day join NATO and handed over the regions of Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.