KYIV: Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Ukrainian troops in Kursk to surrender when Moscow’s forces push to regain lost ground, while Kyiv warns that the Kremlin is using the fight to strengthen his position before attending ceasefire.
US President Donald Trump called on Putin to spare the life of the Ukrainian troops when he said his envoy had held “productive” conversations with Russia’s leader on a proposed 30-day ceasefire.
Russia has mounted a quick counter -offensive in the western border area in Kursk over the past week and re -induced much of the territory, which Ukraine seized in a shock entry last August.
Defeat in Kursk would be a big battle for Ukraine’s plans to use its grip in the region as a negotiating chip in peace talks for the three -year -old war.
“We are sympathetic to President Trump’s call,” Putin said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
“If they lay their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment,” Putin said.
Trump said “thousands” of Ukrainian troops were “completely surrounded by the Russian military and in a very bad and vulnerable position”.
‘Terrible massacre’
“I have strongly requested President Putin that their lives will be spared. This would be a terrible massacre, one not seen since World War II,” Trump said.
Ukraine’s military leadership refused the claims. “There is no threat that our units are surrounded,” released Ukraine’s general staff on social media.
Zelensky gave a more edited assessment in comments on journalists in Kiev. “The situation in the Kursk region is obviously very difficult,” he said, insisting that the campaign still had value.
Russia, he said, had been forced to pull troops from other areas on the front line and ease pressure on Ukrainian troops struggling to keep control of the eastern logistics node in Pokrovsk.
Trump’s latest comments came when he gave an update at a meeting on Thursday between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin in an American-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day break in hostilities.
“We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin from Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war could finally come to an end,” Trump said on his truth’s social platform.
Ukraine is losing grips
Putin said on Thursday that he had “serious questions” about the proposal and that events in Kursk would affect the next movements against a ceasefire.
Zelensky accused the Russian leader of trying to undermine the ceasefire initiative.
“He now does everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start, even before a ceasefire,” Zelensky posted on X.
The Kremlin said Friday that it was “cautiously optimistic”, an appointment could be reached, but that Trump and Putin had to speak directly before conversations could move on.
US national security adviser Mike Waltz said in a Fox News interview that the United States had “some cautious optimism” after Witkoff’s visit.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a meeting of the group of seven western powers in Canada that both sides should do “concessions”.
G7 Foreign Ministers warned Russia for new sanctions unless it accepted a ceasefire “on equal terms” and said sanctions could include “Caps on oil prices as well as further support for Ukraine and other funds”.
France and Germany accused Russia of trying to block a ceasefire, and support for Ukraine should be discussed again at a video conference by some European leaders with Zelensky on Saturday.
Diplomatic sources said EU Foreign Manager Kaja Kallas would suggest that 27-country blocking up to € 40 billion (€ 34 billion) in new military assistance to Ukraine.
Ukraine hoped that its grip on Kursk would be a negotiating chip in conversations with Russia and looked at a potential land exchange with Moscow, which has occupied a fifth of Ukraine since it took Crimea in 2014 and launched its military offensive in February 2022.