"[The president's helicopter] was actually in the epicenter of an operation to repel a massive attack by enemy drones," Yuri Dashkin told the Rossiya 24 television channel.
The attack was successfully repelled and the president's security ensured, the commander added.
Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin confirmed that Ukrainian armed forces continued attacking the Kursk Region while Putin was there.
On May 20, Putin went on a working visit to the Kursk Region, where he met with the region's acting governor, Alexander Khinshtein, as well as the heads of local municipalities and leaders of volunteer organizations. The Russian president also visited the city of Kurchatov, where he inspected the Kursk-2 Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently under construction.