Russia will save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers in its western region of Kursk if kyiv told them to surrender, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday after US President Donald Trump urged him to avoid a “horrible massacre” there.
Ukraine denied that his men were surrounded, describing that as a Russian manufacture, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy qualified the situation as “very difficult”.
Trump, in a social media position, said that he had asked the Russian president to save the lives of thousands of Ukrainians who, according to him, were “completely surrounded” and vulnerable.
“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,” he said.
Putin, addressing his Security Council, said he had read Trump’s call. While accusing Ukrainian troops of conducting crimes against civilians who, according to him, were equivalent to “terrorism” – something that Kyiv denies – Putin said that he understood Trump’s call to take into account humanitarian considerations.
“In this regard, I would like to emphasize that if [the Ukrainian troops] Put their weapons and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and decent treatment in accordance with international law and the laws of the Russian Federation, “said Putin.
“To effectively implement the attraction of the American president, a corresponding order of the military-political leadership of Ukraine is necessary for its military units to lay down arms and go.”
The Vice-President of the Russian Security Council, former president Dmitry Medvedev, posted on social networks that kyiv’s reverse was that “if they refuse to lay their weapons, they will all be methodically and mercilessly destroyed”.
Reports on “encirclement” manufactured: Ukraine’s staff
Kursk became a key theater of war last August when Ukraine, more than two years after the large -scale invasion of Putin, turned the table in Moscow by entering a piece of Russia’s own territory.
Seven months later, it was again under the spotlight, when the Russian forces try to flush out the last remaining Ukrainians and the United States urges Russia to accept a cease-fire in the wider war. Putin said Thursday that Ukrainians were trapped and facing a choice of “surrender or dying”.
The Ukraine staff said on Friday: “The reports on the so-called” encirclements “of the Ukrainian units by the enemy of the Kursk region are false and manufactured by the Russians for political manipulation and put pressure on Ukraine and its partners.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he supports a cease-fire agreement with Ukraine in principle, but will not connect as long as large questions are not answered, in particular by approaching the deep cause of the conflict and determining that will control the ceasefire.
He said there had been 13 combat clashes on Friday and that the battlefield situation was largely unchanged.
“The Units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have successfully gathered, withdrawn from more advantageous defensive positions and perform their tasks assigned in the Kursk region.”
Zelenskyy told journalists that the Kursk offensive managed to divert the Russian forces on the battlefront.
“I can only thank our warriors for Kursk’s operation. I think he has completed his task,” said Zelenskyy.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian troops had taken over Goncharovka, one of the rare Kursk colonies still in Ukrainian hands.
The Ukraine border guards service said that it had rejected an attempt at a Russian recognition group of 10 people to enter Ukrainian territory in the Sumy region, which borders Kursk.
