President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian troops have not been encircled by Russian forces in Kursk region, accusing Russian leader Vladimir Putin of \u201clying\u201d about the situation on the ground. <\/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. The campaign aimed to divert Moscow\u2019s resources from the front lines in the east, and to capture land that could potentially be swapped for Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory. <\/p>\n
Although Kyiv is now on the back foot in Kursk, Zelensky and military analysts have questioned Putin\u2019s claims \u2013 echoed by US President Donald Trump \u2013 that Russian forces have surrounded Ukraine\u2019s soldiers. <\/p>\n
Putin claimed on Thursday that Russian forces had \u201cisolated\u201d Ukraine\u2019s troops in Kursk and that it was \u201cimpossible\u201d for them to escape even in small groups of two or three soldiers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere will only be two options: surrender or die,\u201d Putin said. <\/p>\n
A day later, Trump appeared to amplify Putin\u2019s claims after what he called a \u201cvery good and productive\u201d discussion with the Russian president. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt this very moment, thousands of Ukrainian troops are completely surrounded by the Russian military, and in a very bad and vulnerable position,\u201d Trump said in a post on TruthSocial on Friday, claiming he had asked Putin to spare their lives to avert \u201ca horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II.\u201d <\/p>\n
Although the US president did not refer specifically to Kursk, Putin later told Russia\u2019s security council that he had \u201cnoted\u201d Trump\u2019s appeal to save Ukrainian lives in the region. <\/p>\n
But Ukrainian officials and independent analysts have disputed Putin and Trump\u2019s claims. <\/p>\n
The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based conflict monitor, said Friday that it has \u201cobserved no geolocated evidence to indicate that Russian forces have encircled a significant number of Ukrainian forces\u201d in Kursk or anywhere else along the frontline in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s military said that Russia was lying to shape perception of events on the ground. <\/p>\n
\u201cReports of the alleged \u2018encirclement\u2019 of Ukrainian units by the enemy in the Kursk region are false and fabricated by the Russians for political manipulation and to exert pressure on Ukraine and its partners,\u201d the military said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no threat of encirclement of our units,\u201d it said, adding that its units in Kursk have \u201csuccessfully regrouped\u201d after Russia\u2019s offensives and \u201cwithdrawn to more advantageous defensive positions.\u201d <\/p>\n
In an update Saturday, Zelensky said he had been briefed by Ukraine\u2019s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and also stressed that Ukraine\u2019s troops have not been encircled. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe units are carrying out their tasks exactly as required\u201d and are continuing to repel Russian and North Korean troops, Zelensky said. <\/p>\n
Although Russian military bloggers have said that Ukraine is losing territory in Kursk, some also disputed the reports that Moscow has \u201cencircled\u201d Kyiv\u2019s forces. <\/p>\n
The ISW suggested that Putin was making dubious claims about Ukrainian troops in Kursk region in order to \u201cdistract\u201d from his prevarication over the US-backed ceasefire proposal. <\/p>\n
Kyiv agreed to the proposal during talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, while Putin gave a more ambiguous response, first saying \u201cwe agree with the proposal\u201d before claiming the deal \u201cwasn\u2019t complete.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPutin is attempting to present himself as a reasonable and merciful leader whom President Trump can engage with and to generate a new narrative to distract from\u201d Russia\u2019s refusal to agree to the ceasefire proposal, the ISW wrote. <\/p>\n
Few dispute, however, that Ukraine is retreating in Kursk. This week, Moscow said that Russian forces had recaptured Sudzha, the largest town once occupied by Ukraine, further weakening Kyiv\u2019s primary bargaining chip in potential negotiations with Russia. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian troops have not been encircled by Russian forces in Kursk region, accusing Russian leader Vladimir Putin of \u201clying\u201d about the situation on the ground. 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4442","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\/4442","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=4442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}