Kyiv: Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukrainian troops to Kursk to go while Moscow’s forces are growing to recover the lost ground, while kyiv warns that the Kremlin uses the battle to strengthen its position before engaging in cease-fire talks.
US President Donald Trump urged Putin to save the lives of Ukrainian troops because he said that his envoy had had “productive” talks with the chief of Russia on a 30-day cease-fire.
Russia set up a rapid counter-offensive in the western border region of Kursk during last week, taking up a large part of the territory that Ukraine seized in a shock foray last August.
The defeat in Kursk would be a major blow for the plans of Ukraine to use its taking in the region as a peace negotiation program for discussions for the three -year war.
“We are friendly at the call of President Trump,” said Putin in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
“If they lay their arms and go, they will be guaranteed life and worthy treatment,” said Putin.
Trump said “thousands” of Ukrainian troops were “completely surrounded by the Russian army and in a very bad and vulnerable position”.
‘Horrible massacre’
“I strongly asked President Putin that their lives be spared. It would be a horrible massacre, which has been seen since the Second World War,” said Trump.
The military leaders of Ukraine have denied the assertions. “There is no threat that our units are surrounded,” published the general staff of Ukraine on social networks.
Zelensky gave a more sober assessment in the comments to Kyiv journalists. “The situation in the Kursk region is obviously very difficult,” he said, while insisting that the campaign was still worthy.
Russia, he said, had been forced to draw troops from other areas on the front line, raising pressure on the Ukrainian troops which are fighting to keep control of the eastern logistics center of Pokrovsk.
Trump’s latest comments came because he gave an update on a meeting on Thursday between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin on a Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day break in hostilities.
“We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible bloody war can finally end,” said Trump on his social platform of truth.
Ukraine losing adhesion
Putin said Thursday that he had “serious questions” about the proposal and that Kursk events would influence the next movements to a cease-fire.
Zelensky accused the Russian chief of seeking to undermine the cease-fire initiative.
“He now does everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by fixing extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions from the start before even a cease-fire,” posted Zelensky on X.
The Kremlin said on Friday that it was “prudently optimistic” that an agreement could be concluded, but that Trump and Putin had to speak directly before the talks could progress.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in an interview with Fox News that the United States had “certain careful 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 the two parties should make “concessions”.
G7 foreign ministers have warned Russia of new sanctions unless it accepts a cease-fire “for equal purposes”, affirming that sanctions could include “the ceilings on oil prices, as well as additional support to Ukraine and other means”.
France and Germany accused Russia of seeking to block a ceasefire, and support for Ukraine was to be discussed again during a video of certain European leaders with Zelensky on Saturday.
Diplomatic sources have said that the EU’s foreign business manager Kaja Kallas would propose that the 27 -country block would provide up to 40 billion euros (34 billion pounds Sterling) of new military aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine hoped that its grip on Kursk would be a bargaining currency in talks with Russia and was considering an exchange of potential land with Moscow, which occupied about a fifth from Ukraine since its Crimea in 2014 and launched its military offensive in February 2022.
