MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on beleaguered Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk to “surrender” after US President Donald Trump pleaded for their lives.
Russia has mounted a rapid counteroffensive in the western border region over the past week, recapturing much territory that Ukraine had seized in a shock incursion last August.
A defeat for Ukraine in Kursk would be a major blow to Kyiv’s plans to use its hold on the region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Moscow.
“We are sympathetic to President Trump’s call,” Putin said.
“If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment,” Putin added in remarks broadcast a day after he held talks with a US envoy on a ceasefire.
Trump said “thousands” of Ukrainian troops were “completely surrounded by the Russian military, and in a very bad and vulnerable position”.
“I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II,” he said.
Ukraine’s military leadership denied the claims, though President Volodymyr Zelensky conceded his forces faced mounting pressure.
“There is no threat of our units being encircled,” Ukraine’s General Staff wrote in a social media statement.
Zelensky gave a sober assessment in comments to reporters in Kyiv. “The situation in the Kursk region is obviously very difficult,” he said.
However, he insisted the campaign still had its merits.
Russia, he said, had been forced to pull troops from other areas on the frontline, easing pressure on Ukrainian troops fighting to keep control of the eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Trump’s latest comments came as he gave an update on his ceasefire initiative. His envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin late Thursday to lay out the details of a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day pause in hostilities in the three-year-old conflict.
“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 come to an end,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Ukraine losing grip
Putin said Thursday he had “serious questions” about the proposal.
And Zelensky accused the Russian leader of seeking to undermine the ceasefire initiative by raising doubts about how it would work.
“He is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
The Kremlin said Friday it was “cautiously optimistic” a deal could be reached, but that Trump and Putin had to speak directly before talks could progress.
“When Mr Witkoff brings all the information to President Trump, we will determine the timing of a conversation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“There is still much to be done, but the president has nevertheless identified with President Trump’s position.”
US National Security Advisor 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 would have to make “concessions”.
G7 foreign ministers warned Russia of new sanctions unless it accepts a ceasefire “on equal terms”.
“They discussed imposing further costs on Russia in case such a ceasefire is not agreed, including through further sanctions, caps on oil prices, as well as additional support for Ukraine, and other means.”
Putin said Thursday he wanted any settlement to secure “long-term peace”, alluding to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine be barred from NATO.
Zelensky has called Putin’s response “very manipulative”, while Germany called it a “delaying tactic”.
On top of the pressure in Kursk, Russia has been advancing across the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region for the past year.
Ukraine hoped its hold on Kursk would be a bargaining chips in talks with Russia and was eyeing a potential land swap with Moscow, which has occupied around a fifth of Ukraine since it took Crimea in 2014 and launched its military offensive in February 2022.
