Putin taps ex-bodyguard to oversee operations to drive out Ukrainian forces from Kursk

President Vladimir Putin has called in a trusted aide and former personal bodyguard to be his eyes and ears in monitoring operations to expel Ukrainian forces from Russia, according to two people familiar with the decision.

While there’s been no official Kremlin announcement of Alexey Dyumin’s role, he’s been tasked with overseeing the military and civilian response to the incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region and to report back to Putin, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal matters.

Putin named Dyumin as secretary of Russia’s State Council in May, an influential post at the body that is responsible for developing “strategic goals and tasks of domestic and foreign policy.” Still, he does not have an official role at the defence ministry or the Federal Security Service, which the president charged publicly on Monday with driving out Ukrainian forces from Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond to a request to comment.

Dyumin has been put in charge of operations in the region, said Nikolai Ivanov, a lawmaker for Kursk in Russia’s lower house of parliament, according to RTVi media’s website.

Russia has sent reinforcements to try to quell Ukraine’s surprise cross-border attack that is now in its eighth day, the first time since World War II that a foreign military has seized part of its territory. Ukraine’s army chief told President Volodymyr Zelensky late Monday that his troops control 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) of Russian territory and that offensive operations are continuing.