Russian President, Vladimir Putin has ordered top commanders to defeat Ukrainian forces in the western region of Kursk as soon as possible after the United States asked him to consider a 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Recall that Ukrainian forces smashed across the Russian border on August 6 and grabbed a slice of land inside Russia in a bid to distract Moscow’s forces from the front lines in eastern Ukraine and to gain a potential bargaining chip.

According to the Russian military, a lightning Russian advance over the past few days has left Ukraine with a sliver of less than 200 square km in Kursk, down from 1,300 square km (500 square miles) at the peak of the incursion last summer.

“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible time frame, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region. And of course, we need to think about creating a security zone along the state border,” Putin said

Putin’s remarks, who was dressed in a green camouflage uniform, came as the US President Donald Trump said he hoped Moscow would agree to a ceasefire and said that if not then Washington could cause Russia financial pain.

The chief of Russia’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, told Putin that Russian forces had pushed Ukrainian forces out of over 86% of the territory they had once held in Kursk, the equivalent to 1,100 square km of land.

Gerasimov said Ukraine’s plans to use Kursk as a bargaining chip in possible future negotiations with Russia had failed and its gambit that its Kursk operation would force Russia to divert troops from its advance in eastern Ukraine had also not worked.

Putin orders swift defeat of Ukrainian forces in Kursk