Ukraine insists its troops aren’t surrounded, but they are pulling back from areas they captured last summer.
KYIV — U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Friday that thousands of Ukrainian troops are surrounded by the Russian military in the Kursk region and said he has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to spare them.
However, both Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Kursk and the Ukrainian high command say Trump is wrong. Ukraine is pulling back from the Russian territory it captured in a surprise offensive last summer, but those forces have not been encircled.
The Ukrainian command has sent reinforcements to secure the retreat to new positions, a process that has been under way for several days.
But that’s not the view from the White House after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin on Thursday night.
“We had excellent 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 — BUT, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, AND IN A VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE POSITION,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump is parroting earlier comments by Putin, who made a similar claim during a Thursday press conference alongside Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin said that the Ukrainian soldiers who invaded Russia’s Kursk region “have completely abandoned their equipment, as there will be a physical blockade of the region — they either die or surrender to leave the region.”
Trump is following that narrative.
“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. God bless them all!!!” Trump said.
Ukrainian command is denying that its forces are in danger of being surrounded by Russian troops and their North Korean allies. Ukrainian troops have been on the back foot ever since Trump first ended weapons shipments and then stopped intelligence sharing in an effort to pressure Ukraine to agree to peace talks. U.S. aid has since been restored.
“Reports of the alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region by the enemy are untrue and are being created by the Russians for political purposes and pressure on Ukraine and partners,” Ukrainian Army General Staff said in a statement. “The situation has not changed significantly over the past day. Combat operations in the operational zone of the ‘Kursk’ group of forces continue,” it said.
“Units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have regrouped, withdrawn to more advantageous defense lines and are carrying out the tasks assigned to them on the territory of the Kursk region,” the General Staff added. “There is no threat of encirclement of our units.”
Three soldiers fighting in the Kursk area also said Trump’s claim is, so far, untrue, but the situation of Ukrainian forces is not easy.
“The Russians have still not been able to take our forces into full operational and strategic encirclement,” Artem Kariakin, a soldier stationed in the region, told POLITICO. “They make demands for this, but we resist. Most of the forces managed to be withdrawn under the threat of the situation, so that this would not be allowed.”
“The big problem is the large concentration of all types of Russian drones over this zone, due to which the logistics are still affected, but we continue to leave this zone and enter it for work every day,” Kariakin said.
Another officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said in a brief message: “Mr. Trump is spreading so much false information that we will not comment on him.”
Vitalii, a Ukrainian solider who pulled out of the Kursk region several days ago, denied there ever were thousands of troops in area. “I know some small groups of three to five soldiers indeed got into encirclement, but there was no massive encirclement. Most of us managed to relocate, some even managed to drive away in cars.”
Kariakin said some of the captured Ukrainians have been executed by the Russians, a war crime shown online.
Although the Ukrainian military is pulling back, and no longer has control of the regional city of Sudzha, it still does hold a sliver of Russian territory along the border with Ukraine. According to the DeepState live map of the frontline situation, there’s still enough space for them to maneuver.
While Ukrainians are pulling back in Kursk, elsewhere along the front they are nibbling at Russian gains, largely halting Russia’s push to capture the strategic Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk.
