Moscow says talks with Kiev 'impossible' after Kursk offensive

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled out negotiations with Kiev in light of Ukraine's counteroffensive on Russian soil, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

"The president said it very clearly that following attacks,
or even incursion, on the Kursk region, any talks are
impossible," Lavrov said on Russian state television on the sidelines of Putin's visit to Azerbaijan.

Lavrov also said that Putin would soon give an assessment of the situation. Reports of contacts between the warring parties, which had been established by intermediaries such as Qatar or Turkey, were nothing more than rumours, Lavrov added.

The Russian president's current silence on the crisis in his own military is not new. When faced with previous defeats, Putin only spoke out after a long pause and sometimes after sitting out the crisis.

Ukraine, which has been fending off a full-scale Russian invasion for nearly two and a half years, launched a counteroffensive around a fortnight ago, advancing into the western Russian region of Kursk.

This is the first time that Kiev has shifted the war to the territory of its opponent. Russia continues to occupy large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Prior to the Ukrainian counterattack, Putin had demanded that Kiev cede further territory as a prerequisite for peace negotiations.