President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday accused President Vladimir V. Russia’s Putin of trying to surround KIEB forces in Kursk, Russia, to improve his position in the midst of talks with Washington, but he said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said its forces had reviewed two villages outside Sudzha, the main Russian city occupied by Ukraine in the Kursk area. Russia said this week that it had repeated Sudzha, where correspondents on Russian state television have broadcast videos.
The battles run in and around the Kursk area seized by Ukraine in a surprise attack on Russian territory last summer. The Kremlin is pushing an advanced attack to take the land back there, extending negotiations for a ceasefire of fire suggested by Washington and Kiev this week.
Mr Putin called on the Ukrainian forces on Friday to still fight in the Kursk area to determine their hands and said he would get rid of their lives if they were delivered. He also said that the Ukrainian forces were surrounding there, a claim that President Trump reiterated in a message about the truth.
Mr. Zelensky, speaking to reporters in Kyiv, called on the requirement.
“There are Ukrainian troops in the Kursk area,” he said. “Their encirclement is Putin’s lie.”
Russia’s forces, however, are trying to cut off and trap Ukrainian troops in the Kursk area by pressing in the neighboring Sumy area of Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said, adding that Kiev had the threat.
He said the actions of the Russian army have shown that Moscow was not interested in peace.
Russia’s growing ability to knock on the road coming out of Sudzha to Ukraine has retired from the Kursk region dangerous to Ukrainian forces, Ukrainian officials said, provided anonymity to discuss the situation. They noted, however, that the troops are not fully surrounded.
It was not clear how many Ukrainian forces remained in the Kursk area since Saturday, with many of them retiring in recent weeks.
Moscow has disappeared for months since the occupation of parts of the Kursk region, the first time Russian land has been seized by foreign power by World War II. At one point last year, Russian officials said the negotiations with Ukraine were away, while the KIEV forces were still occupying the land.
Mr Putin previously rejected the idea of a truce or ceasefire, presenting any temporary cessation in the fight as the benefit of the battlefield for Ukraine forces, but when President Trump’s administration carried out a 30-day ceasetime with Ukraine. his rejection.
Mr Putin, in the apparent hope of continuing Moscow’s rapid approach with Washington, while seeking the goals of his battle, said that “the idea itself is right and we certainly support it, but there are questions we need to discuss.”
The Russian leader then proceeded with conditions for a ceasefire that is known to be unacceptable to Kiev, including the demands that Ukraine ceases to mobilize young soldiers, train troops, or introduce weapons for any pause.
Mr Trump, in the truth of his social status on Friday, said his administration had “very good and productive discussions” with Mr Putin, “and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally be over.”
The two leaders are expected to speak over the phone, after Mr Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow and met with Mr. Putin to discuss a ceasefire proposal this week.
In the meantime, Russia escalates on the battlefield.
Russia accumulates forces along the Ukrainian border between Kursk and Sumy areas before Ukrainian officials expect a major offensive attempt to lead to the border and cut Ukrainian troops in Kursk.
In recent days, Russia has sent small attack groups and sabotage to make recognition, test Ukrainian defenses and try to set the scene for greater impetus, Ukraine officials said. Mr Zelensky’s comments underlined the threat.
As Ukraine unfolded from a temporary cut of US military aid and assistance for information last week, Moscow strengthened its efforts to repeat Kursk. The Russians are pushing for multiple directions, as Ukrainians retreat to more favorable positions, Ukrainian officials and analysts said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov reiterated Mr Putin’s offer to Ukrainian soldiers to surrender and save their lives in comments at the state -run news agency on Saturday.
“It is still valid,” Mr Peskov said, though he added that “time is over.”
The simple reference to the encirclement beats a nerve for many Ukrainians. Efforts to rescue the lives of Ukrainian soldiers surrounding twice before playing key roles in negotiations with Russia – in 2014, in Ilovaisk and 2015 in Debaltseve.
Both remember Ukraine as experiences, with concessions offered only to have, in the Ukrainian view, Russia Renege and Open Fire anyway.
In 2015, Russian forces attacked a group of several thousand Ukrainian soldiers in a precarious position in the city of Debalseve, which had a single way of accessing and renewing. A cease negotiations that led to the agreement known as Minsk 2-an unsuccessful previous attempt to resolve the battle in eastern Ukraine-started when the road was on a direct fire from Russian tanks, but was not naturally controlled by Russian soldiers.
This occasion left ambiguous if the city is surrounded. In the negotiations, Mr Putin had argued that the situation was assimilated to the troops.
Ukraine has granted political concessions to the Minsk 2 agreement to save the surrounding soldiers. Russia later took the place that the ceasefire in the front line, but not the soldiers that had already been surrounded. The Ukrainian Contingent retreated under a fire on a dash before dawn several days later and more than a hundred soldiers were killed.
The battle comes in the midst of increasing the increase in the diplomatic activity aimed at dealing with the conflict.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned Saturday that the West cannot allow Mr Putin to “play games with President Trump’s agreement” as the British leader convened a virtual summit of the world leaders who pledged to help.
“Kremlin’s complete indifference to President Trump’s cease proposal only serves to prove that Putin is not serious for peace,” the British leader said.
Even as attention he focused on the Kursk area, the attacks continued elsewhere on the front.
Overnight, Russia launched two iskander-M ballistic missiles and 178 drones in Ukrainian cities, the Ukrainian authorities said. The rockets hit a residential area in Kryvyi Rih, the home of Mr Zelensky in Central Ukraine, injuring 14 people, including two children, according to local authorities.
Andrew E. Kramer and Marc santora He contributed to Kyiv.
