Putin calls meeting, demanding that Russia's Defence Ministry push Ukrainian forces out of Kursk Oblast

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has convened a meeting regarding the situation in the regions bordering Ukraine and demanded that Russia's Defence Ministry "push the enemy out" of Kursk Oblast.

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian agency RIA Novosti, citing Putin

Quote: "The Defence Ministry is definitely facing the main task of pushing the enemy out of our territories and, in coordination with the border service, ensure robust protection of the state border."

Details: Putin also claimed that Ukraine seems to be trying to improve its future negotiating position.

Background: 

• On 10 August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had heard reports from Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, some of which concerned the operations whose goal it is to bring the war to the territory of Russia, the aggressor state.
• Ukrainian troops are digging trenches in Russia's Kursk Oblast, and this is a sign that they plan to stay there, Forbes writes.
• Journalists geolocated a video posted by Russian sources on the morning of 12 August and discovered that Ukrainian military vehicles were seen passing through the village of Girii, Belovsky district, Kursk Oblast, about 30 km southeast of the town of Sudzha, towards which Ukrainian troops had moved earlier.

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