Putin Says There Will Be No Peace Talks With Ukraine As 180,000 Citizens Evacuated Amid Invasion

Ukraine's brazen and high risk cross-border ground incursion into Russia's Kursk region is nearly one week in, with Russian forces still fighting off the invaders, and Kiev confirming in a fresh statement that the "offensive operation" is continuing.

Russian emergency authorities are evacuated an astounding 180,000 citizens from border regions where fighting has encroached. An official briefing delivered to President Putin on the situation on Monday has revealed that this shock Ukraine offensive is bigger and more expansive and devastating than previously believed.

"Ukraine’s military has taken control of 28 towns and villages in Russia’s Kursk border region, prompting a sixth of its population to flee the incursion, the acting regional governor told President Vladimir Putin," Bloomberg writes of official statements. But it remains that along the front lines inside eastern Ukraine, Russian forces are still advancing, with RIA stating "Russia takes control of the settlement of Lyscychne in Ukraine."

Ukraine is now claiming that its forces hold 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory, a Monday statement from its defense ministry said. According to more from Bloomberg, Russian officials have admitted that a sizeable chunk of Russian territory is in a state of emergency:

More than 120,000 people have left their homes and about 60,000 more are waiting to be evacuated, Alexey Smirnov told Putin and Russia’s top security officials during a televised meeting on Monday. Ukrainian forces have penetrated at least 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into Russia and control a border area at least 40 kilometers wide, though there’s “no clear understanding” of where their troops are, he said.

President Putin has issued his first detailed public statements since the incursion began. One thing he stressed in the Monday remarks is that now there will be no peace talks or settlement with Kiev.

"It is now clear why the Kiev regime refused our proposals to return to the plan for peaceful settlement," Putin said. "The enemy, with the help of its Western masters - it is doing their bidding, and the West is waging war against us using Ukrainians... seeks to improve its negotiating position in the future."

"But what kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately strike civilians, civilian infrastructure or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities," the Russian leader added.. "What can we even talk about with them?"

This latter part was in reference to the somewhat mysterious drama happening Sunday at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where a fire appeared to break out, which was then used by President Zelensky to hype the threat of looming nuclear disaster. But the UN's IAEA has since said the incident, which may have simply involved tires being set alight at the complex, has had no impact on nuclear safety.

As for the latest developments on Russia's efforts to push back the southern invasion, the Kremlin has issued the following figures:

• Hospitals have admitted 69 people that were injured in Ukrainian shelling of the Kursk Region,
• 17 are in serious condition.
• Ukraine has lost up to 1,350 troops,
• Ukraine has lost 29 tanks and 23 armored personnel carriers since the start 

And below are some of the last developments in the last hours via Al Jazeera:

• New evacuation orders have been issued in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions amid Ukraine’s cross-border incursion.
• Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) says that Russia is trying to falsely accuse Kyiv’s military of war crimes.
• Kursk’s governor, Alexei Smirnov, says the total civilian death toll from Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has reached 12.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Ukraine is trying to undermine Russian stability with its incursion into the south of the country, but it will not succeed.
• Russia says it has repelled seven Ukrainian attacks in Kursk launched by Ukraine’s 80th and 82nd airborne assault brigades in the past 24 hours.
• A Ukrainian deputy energy minister accused of taking a bribe worth half a million dollars has been arrested along with three alleged accomplices, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

Amid ongoing speculation as to what Zelensky ultimately hopes to get out of this Kursk operation, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov has been in phone calls with Western counterparts, urging NATO countries to lift their prior bans on Western weapons being used to attack inside Russia.

The internationalization of this proxy war is growing...

Umerov said on X that he urged the leadership of France to lift the ban on "hitting military targets" in the "enemy’s territory".

Russian leadership is viewing with increased dismay surprising scenes like the following...

In May the French Presidency's office stipulated that Western weapons could be used only on locations "from which the missiles are fired" and "not other civilian or military targets." But now it has become clear that Ukraine hopes to strike deeper into Russia with NATO-supplied long range missiles.

This would mark an ultra-dangerous turning point in the war, which the Kremlin might consider an 'existential threat' to the nation, triggering deployment of strategic forces. Already Western-supplied armored vehicles have been spotted among Ukraine's invasion force.