US criticizes Putin’s irony over Ukraine "provocation" claim

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller commented on Vladimir Putin's statements, where Putin described the actions of the Ukrainian military as a "provocation." "It's a bit rich coming from them to call it a provocation," stated Miller.

Much of the information provided by Russian media or representatives of Russian authorities is propaganda. Such reports are part of the information war conducted by the Russian Federation.

Matthew Miller informed that the United States is in contact with Ukraine regarding the events in the Kursk region. However, the U.S. will not comment on the situation on behalf of Ukraine.

Miller highlighted the irony of Vladimir Putin's statement that the current events in the Kursk region constitute a "provocation" by Ukraine. "I have seen the statements from the Russian Government. It’s a little bit rich them calling it a provocation given Russia violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty – you said 900 days; it actually goes back much longer than that, it goes back to 2014 – and continues to illegally occupy Ukrainian territory," said the U.S. State Department spokesperson.

He also emphasized that the decisions on how Ukraine conducts its military operations "are decisions that Ukraine makes," while U.S. policy regarding attacks on Russian territory using Western weapons has not changed.

The meeting of the Russian Federation's top leadership, which usually takes place on Fridays, was urgently moved to Wednesday. Vladimir Putin convened the meeting, which was attended by the heads of all security agencies, the heads of both houses of parliament, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, former President Dmitry Medvedev, and Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoigu.

The situation is exceptional. For the first time, Ukrainian troops entered Russian territory in such large numbers. On Tuesday, 400 people, 11 tanks, and 20 armored combat vehicles crossed the border. The Kursk region declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, August 7. The region's acting governor, Aleksey Smirnov, announced this on the Telegram channel.