Russia’s president has walked back comments that Ukraine’s Kursk incursion makes peace talks impossible. Meanwhile, the IAEA chief says one of the Zaporizhzhia plant’s towers requires demolition.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia’s main objective in Ukraine is to fully control the Donbas region.
Putin has repeatedly reframed Russia’s objective since first launching its invasion in February 2022.
After initially appearing rattled at Ukraine’s advances into Russia’s Kursk region throughout August, Putin insisted that Moscow’s forces were “gradually” pushing them back.
“The aim of the enemy (in Kursk) was to force us to worry, hustle, divert troops and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in the Donbas, the liberation of which is our main primary objective,” Putin said in Vladivostok.
