Putin Drives Home a Perilous Point: Ukraine’s East Is Russia’s Main Goal

As Kyiv raced reinforcements to eastern Ukraine to try to stabilize its buckling defensive lines there, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia amplified his threats against the region on Thursday, calling Moscow’s offensive in the area his military’s “first-priority goal.”

Mr. Putin, speaking at an international conference in Vladivostok, sought to portray his army’s grueling advance in the eastern Donbas region as evidence of a failed Ukrainian military strategy. He largely dismissed Ukraine’s capture of hundreds of square miles of Russian territory in the Kursk region as little more than a distraction that would be dealt with over time.

Kyiv made a mistake, he said, in deploying “fairly large and well-trained units” to the Kursk offensive.

“The enemy’s goal was to make us nervous and worry and to transfer troops from one sector to another and stop our offensive in key areas, primarily in the Donbas,” Mr. Putin said at the conference. “Did it work or no? No.”

Analysts have said that diverting troops was not the only goal of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia, noting that it provided a morale boost and created a buffer zone that Ukraine might leverage in future cease-fire negotiations. It also punctured the notion that Russia was immune from troops invading and capturing its territory.