INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area
Lviv region with deadly strikes, and after recent advances by Moscow's forces in the Donbas.Since the start of its offensive in February
2022 when it failed to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Russia has adapted its aims, concentrating instead on trying to conquer eastern
Ukraine.While Ukraine's surprise push into Russia's Kursk region last month caught Russian forces off-guard, Putin stressed that the move
had failed to slow Moscow's advance in occupied Ukraine."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 at a forum
in Vladivostok, in Russia's Far East.Russia claims as its own the eastern Donetsk region and three other Ukrainian regions.Moscow has
Ukraine from where thousands have now fled.Putin said that by sending "quite well-prepared units" into Kursk, Ukraine had made Moscow's
advance in Donbas quicker."The enemy weakened itself in key areas, our army has accelerated its offensive operations," he argued.'Holy
to towns and villages for almost a month."Our armed forces have stabilized the situation and started gradually squeezing [the enemy] out
from our territory," Putin said.It was not possible to verify those claims.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted on Thursday that
Ukraine was "maintaining the defined lines" in the Kursk region.Russia did not mount a large-scale response in the first days of the
incursion, which became the largest on Russian soil since World War II.Putin has since played down the significance of the Ukrainian attack
but has hardened his rhetoric in recent days."It is the holy duty of the Russian army to do everything to throw out the enemy from this
territory and to protect our citizens," he said on Thursday.Earlier this week, Zelensky told U.S
TV channel NBC that Ukraine would hold on to the territory captured in the Kursk region.Zelensky has previously said that one of Kyiv's
"goals" in Kursk was to show Russians "what is more important to him (Putin): occupation of the territories of Ukraine or the protection of
his population."Kyiv has also said that it wants to force Moscow into "fair" negotiations.Aborted dealWhile Russian officials have rushed in
recent weeks to say that the Kursk incursion makes any talks with Ukraine impossible, Putin appeared to roll back those statements.Russia
Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson."Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so," Putin said on Thursday."But not on
the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initialed in Istanbul," he added.The
Kremlin has claimed Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of a deal in the spring of 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its offensive in
Ukraine.On Thursday, both sides reported fresh casualties near the frontlines.In Ukraine's Donetsk region, a 74-year-old man died when a
Russian shell hit his home in the town of Kostyantynivka, the regional prosecutor's office said, posting a photo of a destroyed
building.Ukrainian shelling killed a man in Russia's Belgorod border region, the region's Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
