Vladimir Putin meets acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein. Photo: kremlin.ru

Vladimir Putin visited the Kursk region on Tuesday for the first time since the Russian military drove out the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) who made an incursion into the region last August, the Kremlin has reported.

In the course of his visit, Putin toured a nuclear power plant which is currently under construction, held a meeting with leading local politicians and met the acting governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein.

He also talked to local volunteers, telling them that Ukrainian forces were driven by the “ideology of Nazism”, as demonstrated by their alleged “deliberate destruction of World War II monuments”. “Even at an idiot contest they’d only come second. … Their actions show who they really are,” Putin said.

This was Putin’s second visit this year to the southwestern Russian region, which borders Ukraine, independent media outlet Agentstvo observed. As with Putin’s first visit, details were only revealed after the event for security reasons.

The AFU launched a surprise offensive into the Kursk region in August, seizing a number of towns and villages. The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, announced that Russia had fully taken the Kursk region back under its control at the end of April, though the AFU said at the time that some of its units remained in the region.