Russia looks to downplay Ukraine invasion as 'new normal' while Putin fails to stop war on home turf: report

Officials in the Kremlin are scrambling to downplay Ukraine’s invasion into the Kursk region as Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed for a second week to stop Kyiv’s advances on his home turf, according to a report by independent Russian news outlet Meduza.

The report, which first emerged last week, claimed that sources in the Kremlin have begun pushing government-funded media agencies to minimize the severity of the Ukrainian incursion and to start employing a propaganda campaign that encourages Russians to embrace the "new normal."

Fox News Digital could not independently verify the report, which comes as Ukraine continues to tout its success in capturing more than 780 square miles of Kursk, including the town of Sudhza, as well as nearly 100 Russian villages, according to Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Tuesday. 

Ukrainian servicemen pose for a picture near a military vehicle amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the Russian border in Sumy region of Ukraine on Aug. 11, 2024. (Reuters/Viacheslav Ratynskyi)

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The report also said Moscow is attempting to distract Russians through humanitarian assistance drives and assuring those in the Kursk region that Russian forces will take back the region following the "inevitable" defeat of Ukraine on its eastern front. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he does not plan to keep his forces in southwestern Russia for the long term, claiming they are there for the time being to serve as a "buffer zone" to staunch Russian attacks in the northern Sumy region.

In a sign that Russian attacks in the Ukrainian border region have decreased following the incursion earlier this month, Zelenskyy traveled to Sumy on Thursday, when he met with military officials. He did not cross the Russian border into Kursk in a move that would have been interpreted as provocative by Moscow. 

Kyiv’s operational goals in Kursk remain unclear, and some have theorized it could be an attempt to draw Russian forces away from the front lines in eastern Ukraine. 

According to the Meduza report, Russian officials have suggested Ukrainian forces could remain in the region for several months – which suggests Putin is either unwilling or unable to immediately deploy the number of troops he would need to retake Kursk.

Ukrainian forces fight during military operations in Kursk region in Malaya Loknya, Kursk Region, Russia in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released on Aug. 20, 2024. (95th Air Assault Brigade/Handout via REUTERS)

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A report by the Wall Street Journal earlier this week said Russia, within the first week of Kyiv’s incursion, had redistributed some 5,000 troops largely from its operations in Donetsk to counter Ukraine’s alleged 6,000 forces in Kursk. 

However, the report also cited a source familiar with the operation and said Russia would likely need to move close to 20,000 troops to successfully oust Ukrainian forces from the Russian border region. 

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on Wednesday that Putin and his military officials are banking on Ukraine’s inability to keep up against Russia’s war of attrition amid its artillery insufficiencies, which were exacerbated following delays in U.S. arms package deliveries during the winter and spring months earlier this year.

"The Kremlin's theory of victory in Ukraine…[is] premised on the assumption that Russian forces can deprive Ukraine of the ability to contest the theater-wide initiative in perpetuity," the ISW reported. 

Servicemen of the 24th Mechanised Brigade fire a" Giatsint-S" 152mm self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near Chasiv Yar town, in Donetsk region of Ukraine on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukrainian 24th Mechanised Brigade via AP)

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Though it also noted that despite Ukraine’s artillery disadvantage, Kyiv has still been able to employ alternative and asymmetrical tactics through drone and long-range missile strikes to successfully counter Russian advances.

"ISW recently assessed that both Russian and Ukrainian forces lack the capability to conduct individual decisive war-winning operations and must instead conduct multiple successful operations with limited operational objectives that, in the aggregate, can achieve strategic objectives," the assessment added. 

Concerns remain high over Russian advances in Donetsk, where Ukraine has begun enforcing mandatory evacuations.