In the face of Ukraine’s ongoing attack on Russia’s Kursk region, the White House gave President Vladimir Putin a blunt response on Monday.
John Kirby, national security communications adviser, said Monday that if Putin finds Ukraine’s incursion into the western Russian region of Kursk uncomfortable, “there is a simple solution: He can just get out of Ukraine and be done with it.”
It has now been more than a week since Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack on the region.
While the exact extent of the incursion remains largely unknown, a senior Ukrainian general said Tuesday that their forces had captured about 390 square miles of Russian territory.
The invasion seemed to catch Russia off guard: regional authorities said Ukraine had captured 28 settlements along the border, forcing more than 120,000 people to flee.
On Monday, Kirby made the remarks in response to a question about Putin’s previous statements, in which he accused the West of “waging war against us with the help of the Ukrainians” during the surprise invasion of Kursk, Russian state media reported.
It is unclear whether the White House knew about the attack in advance. Last week, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre indicated that this was not the case. The White House plans to contact Kyiv to learn more about the targets of the attack.
The United States and other Ukraine allies responded bluntly to Russian complaints about the invasion.
A US State Department spokesman said earlier this week that it was “a little bold” of Russia to complain about an attack on its territory while it was already in the middle of invading Ukraine.
European government officials have said Ukraine has the “legitimate right” to launch a counterattack on Russian soil.
