Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Kursk Oblast, his first since the Russian military drove Ukrainian forces out of the area last month, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The Kremlin said Putin met with volunteer groups in the area and toured the Kursk-II nuclear power plant during his visit on Tuesday.
He also met with local leaders, including the region’s acting governor, Alexander Khinshtein. Putin was accompanied by Sergei Kiriyenko, deputy chief of staff to the president.
Russia announced in April that it had pushed Ukrainian troops out of the Kursk Oblast, ending the largest incursion into Russian territory since World War II.
Ukraine launched its most audacious offensive yet on August 6, pushing across the Russian border into the Kursk Oblast, backed by a swarm of drones and heavy weapons supplied by Western countries.
At the height of the military operation, Ukraine claims to have held 1,400 square kilometers.
At the end of April, in a video released by the Kremlin, Putin reported that the Ukrainian offensive on Russia’s Kursk region had completely failed, which, he pointed out, would be the foundation for the future success of the Russian army. The video shows Russian army chief Valery Gerasimov submitting a report to Putin informing him that Ukrainian forces have been expelled from the last part of the Kursk region.
Gerasimov then told Putin that North Korean soldiers played a major role in Russia’s military successes in Kursk.
