Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to blame the West for his country’s challenges in overcoming Ukrainian resistance.

During a meeting with regional governors and national defense officials on Monday, Putin stated that the current military operation in the Kursk region will not affect negotiations.

“The West is fighting us through the Ukrainians,” Putin told them at his residence near Moscow, according to a report from The New York Times.

“The enemy will undoubtedly face the consequences they deserve, and all our goals will be achieved without a doubt,” he added.

Ukraine launched incursions into Russian territory last week, continuing its campaign since last Tuesday.

These events have drawn criticism towards the Russian military command for intelligence and tactical failures that allowed the attack to occur.

“One of the enemy’s clear objectives is to sow discord, conflict, intimidate people, and undermine the unity and cohesion of Russian society,” Putin told government officials during a televised meeting this week, according to the Moscow Times. “The primary task, of course, is for the Ministry of Defense to expel the enemy from our territories.”

Experts attribute Ukraine’s successes to “unconventional” tactics that have caught the much larger Russian military off guard.

“Given the significant disparity in combat potential favoring Russia on the battlefield, Ukrainian forces seem to be shifting to, or at least intensifying, unconventional warfare, bringing the war deeper into Russia,” , a strategic military intelligence analyst and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Digital last week.

“With the latest surprise incursion into Kursk oblast, Zelenskyy likely aims to demonstrate to Putin that as long as there’s no peace in Ukraine, the Russian people will not rest peacefully either,” Koffler said. “Kyiv is probably also trying to strengthen its negotiating position in a potential peace agreement with Moscow.”

Approximately 121,000 people have evacuated the Kursk region — residents of the Belovsky and Krasnoyaruzhsky districts have also joined the exodus.

Ukraine has received tens of billions of dollars in aid from , providing weapons and resources to resist Russian expansion in the ongoing conflict.

Digital’s Peter Aitken and Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.