President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia visited the Kursk region in the west of the country for the first time since Moscow’s troops drove Ukrainian forces out of most of the territory they had seized there in a surprise cross-border offensive.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that had Mr. Putin visited Kursk’s nuclear power plant a day earlier and met with volunteers helping residents affected by the conflict. Russian state news media released images of the visit in what appeared to be an attempt to project a return to normality, even as fighting still raged in one corner of the region.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Kursk in August and quickly seized some 500 square miles of Russian territory. But Ukraine’s push slowed after a few weeks and its troops began to lose ground as Russian forces deployed there in greater numbers. With the help of North Korean troops, Russian forces managed to chip away at Ukrainian-occupied territory before launching a decisive counterattack in March that reclaimed most of Kursk.
Kyiv had hoped to use its control over Russian land in Kursk as leverage in any negotiation to end the war.
Mr. Putin had previously indicated that he would not negotiate with Ukraine until its forces surrendered in Kursk. His visit to the region on Tuesday comes days after Russian and Ukrainian officials met for the first direct peace talks in more than three years.
Ukraine’s incursion was the first invasion of Russia since World War II. Both armies suffered heavy casualties during the nine months of fighting, which also inflicted a heavy toll on civilians.
The Russian government has said that nearly 300 Russian civilians died in Kursk, and that another 110,000 were displaced. The violence punctured attempts by Russian propaganda to present the war in Ukraine as a distant “special military operation.”
The Kremlin has given few details about civilian deaths in Kursk and has restricted access to the area for independent researchers and journalists, making it difficult to get a sense of the true scale of casualties.
Many displaced civilians have complained about a lack of government support and the indifference of the majority of Russian society to their suffering. Mr. Putin’s visit on Tuesday appeared aimed in part at addressing these concerns. During televised remarks of his meeting with the Kursk local government, the president promised to pay stipends to residents of border settlements equivalent to $800 a month.
Anatoly Kurmanaev covers Russia and its transformation following the invasion of Ukraine.
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