President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Russia\u2019s occupied Kursk region on Wednesday, as the Kremlin considers a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with his troops closing in on Ukraine\u2019s only territorial bargaining chip. <\/p>\n
Wearing military uniform in video broadcast by Russian state television, Putin told frontline troops that Moscow\u2019s goal is to \u201ccompletely liberate\u201d Kursk as soon as possible, during his first trip to the western region since Ukraine\u2019s unexpected incursion there last year. <\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s carefully choreographed visit appeared designed to boost morale as Russian forces advance on the final remnants of Ukraine\u2019s holdouts inside Russia, a day after peace talks between US and Ukrainian officials resulted in Kyiv accepting a 30-day US-backed ceasefire covering the entire frontline. <\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s lightning advance in Kursk threatens Kyiv\u2019s sole territorial bargaining counter at a crucial time in the war when a potential ceasefire hangs in the balance. <\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the ball is now in Putin\u2019s court as US representatives headed to Russia \u201cright now as we speak,\u201d to discuss the ceasefire proposal. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to see. It\u2019s up to Russia now,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, as he declined to comment on whether he has a meeting scheduled with the Russian leader. <\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Putin was \u201ccarefully studying\u201d the proposal, as Moscow waits to be briefed by US officials in the coming days. <\/p>\n
Hours later, Russian state media footage showed Putin meeting with his top general Valery Gerasimov in Kursk before delivering a speech to soldiers, in which he urged them to oust the remaining Ukrainian forces in the region and raised the possibility of creating a \u201cbuffer zone\u201d along Russia\u2019s border with Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Ukrainian soldiers captured in Kursk should be treated as \u201cterrorists,\u201d Putin added. <\/p>\n
Ukraine launched its shock incursion into Kursk in August, swiftly capturing territory in what was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II. As well as capturing land that could potentially be swapped for Russian-occupied territory, the campaign aimed to divert Moscow\u2019s resources from the front lines in the east. <\/p>\n
But Ukraine has struggled to hold onto its captured territory, with its grip on the region rapidly deteriorating in recent days. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Gerasimov claimed that Russian forces had recaptured more than 86% of the area taken by Ukraine, that 430 Ukrainian soldiers had been taken prisoner \u2013 and the remaining Ukrainians were surrounded. <\/p>\n
Kyiv\u2019s hopes of using Kursk as a bargaining tool in negotiations had \u201ctotally collapsed,\u201d Gerasimov claimed. <\/p>\n
Peskov on Thursday said the operation to oust the remaining Ukrainian forces has entered its final stage, state news agency TASS said. <\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s army has admitted to being driven out of several settlements in Kursk by Russian forces in recent days. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Ukraine\u2019s top general Oleksandr Syrskyi hinted at further tactical retreats to \u201cmore favorable positions,\u201d saying his priority was to \u201csave the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Russia had carried out airstrikes on its own land, including the town of Sudzha, which was \u201calmost completely destroyed,\u201d Syrskyi added. <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s Special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Russia later this week, though it is unclear whether he plans to meet with Putin, with whom he met last month. <\/p>\n
Vice President JD Vance, speaking in the Oval Office, noted that conversations are happening \u201con the phone and in person with some of our representatives over the next couple of days.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Russia\u2019s occupied Kursk region on Wednesday, as the Kremlin considers a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with his troops closing in on Ukraine\u2019s only territorial bargaining chip. Wearing military uniform in video broadcast by Russian state television, Putin told frontline troops that Moscow\u2019s goal is to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}