Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, dressed in fatigues, visited a command post near the front in Kursk late Wednesday to cheer on his military’s ejection of Ukrainian forces from much of the territory they had been occupying in the Russian border region.
The Russian leader’s pointed visit came a day after a U.S. delegation met in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian officials, who agreed to a 30-day cease-fire in the war. American officials planned to take the proposal to Mr. Putin, who has previously said he is not interested in a temporary truce.
Dressed in a green camouflage uniform, Mr. Putin sat at a desk with maps spread out in front of him, according to photos released by the Kremlin. He appeared with Russia’s top military officer, Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov.
In video footage released by Russian state media, Mr. Putin praised the Russian military formations that had taken back much of the territory captured by Ukraine in the Kursk region. He called on the troops to seize the territory for good from Ukrainian forces, who have been occupying portions of the Russian border region since last summer. Kyiv had hoped to use the territory as a bargaining chip in peace talks.
The Russian leader also demanded that Ukrainian forces taken prisoner in the region be treated and prosecuted as terrorists under Russian law. General Gerasimov said more than 400 Ukrainian troops had been captured in the operations.
“People who are on the territory of the Kursk region, committing crimes here against the civilian population and opposing our armed forces, law enforcement agencies and special services, in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation, are terrorists,” Mr. Putin said.
He added that “foreign mercenaries” do not fall under the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of prisoners of war. The conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has drawn foreign fighters. This month, Russia sentenced a 22-year-old British man who had volunteered for the Ukrainian Army to 19 years in prison on terrorism and mercenary charges, after his capture in the Kursk region last year.
Russian forces stepped up an offensive to push Ukrainian troops out of the region this week, as Kyiv reeled from the Trump administration’s decision last week to freeze U.S. intelligence and military assistance to Ukraine after an explosive confrontation in the Oval Office between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
After talks on Tuesday with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia, the Trump administration announced that it would resume the assistance.
By then, Russian forces were already well on their way to taking back Sudzha, the main population center in the Kursk region that was captured by Ukraine last year.
For months, Ukraine’s occupation of Russian territory has been a sore point for Moscow, which bolstered its forces with North Korean soldiers in an attempt to take back the land.
Russian officials boasted of a breakthrough attack in Kursk last Saturday, when, they said, some 800 fighters traveled about 10 miles through a disused gas pipeline to carry out a surprise attack on the Ukrainian rear.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, said in a statement that Ukrainian forces were moving to “more advantageous positions” if necessary and would “hold the line in the Kursk region for as long as it remains reasonable and necessary.” He added, “In the most difficult situations, my priority has been and remains the preservation of Ukrainian soldiers’ lives.”
Mr. Putin has said that any temporary cease-fire or truce will only provide an advantage to Ukrainian forces, who are on the back foot on the battlefield and could use the reprieve to replenish personnel.
Russia has demanded a broader security agreement backed by the West, including a guarantee that Ukraine will not be admitted to the NATO military alliance, as well as other commitments that risk eroding Ukraine’s sovereignty.
“We do not need a truce,” Mr. Putin said during his annual news briefing in December. “We need peace: a long-term and lasting peace with guarantees for the Russian Federation and its citizens.”
Marc Santora contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.
