Moscow, Sep 2 (IANS): Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said that Ukraine failed to meet its objective of its diversionary move into the Kursk region as Russian troops continued their advance in the Donbass, at a pace that has not been seen for a "long time".

"The Russian armed forces are taking control of territories not by 200, 300 metres at a time, but by square kilometres," he said, RT reported.

The President added that Ukraine's "provocation" in Kursk would inevitably fail and that Moscow would "deal with the Ukrainian bandits" who have entered Russian territory with the aim of destabilising the situation at the border.

After that, he contended that Kiev may come to realise that it needs to resolve the conflict through negotiations, and reiterated that Moscow has never refused to hold such talks, but accused the Ukrainian leadership of not being "interested in ending the fighting" as it would have to hold new presidential elections as soon as martial law in the country was lifted.

"The current authorities are clearly not ready for this, they have little chance of being re-elected," Putin said. “That is why they are not interested in ending the fighting, that is why they tried to carry out this provocation in Kursk Region, and before when they tried to carry out the same operation in Belgorod Region.”

Meanwhile, Russia will continue to protect its people in Donbass, as well as "our common future, the future of Russia", he stressed.

Moscow "cannot allow hostile structures to be created right next to us that hatch aggressive plans against our country and constantly try to destabilise the Russian Federation", he maintained.

Early in August, thousands of Ukrainian troops entered Russia’s Kursk, in its largest cross-border assault since the start of the conflict in 2022. As per the Russian Defence Ministry, while the Ukrainian forces initially managed to seize some border areas, their advance was eventually halted, and the gambit has proven costly as they lost a large number of men and material.