Putin says he will spare Ukrainian troops in Kursk after Trump's plea

(CLO) Russia will spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers in the western Kursk region if Kiev tells them to surrender, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday after a plea from US President Donald Trump.

In a tweet, President Trump said he had asked the Russian president to spare the lives of thousands of Ukrainians he described as "totally surrounded" and vulnerable. "I have strongly asked President Putin to spare their lives. This would be a horrific massacre, the likes of which have not been seen since World War II," he said.

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Donald Trump's Truth Social post pleading with the Russian military to spare the lives of the besieged Ukrainian soldiers at Kursk read: " We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this bloody, horrible war can finally be ended — BUT, AT THIS MOMENT, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINE SOLDIERS ARE TOTALLY SURROUNDED BY RUSSIAN ARMIES AND IN VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE CONDITION. I have made an impassioned plea to President Putin to spare their lives. This will be a horrendous massacre, the likes of which have not been seen since World War II. God bless them all!!!"

Mr Putin, speaking before the Russian Security Council, said he had read Mr Trump's appeal, adding that he understood the US president's call to take humanitarian considerations into account.

"In this regard, I would like to stress that if (Ukrainian troops) lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed their lives and treated decently in accordance with international law and the laws of the Russian Federation," Putin said.

“In order to effectively implement the call of the US President, there must be a corresponding order from the military- political leadership of Ukraine for military units to lay down their arms and surrender,” he said earlier on Thursday that Ukrainian soldiers were trapped and faced a choice of “surrender or death”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Ruptly/TASS

However, despite the above developments and information, Ukraine still denies that its soldiers are surrounded, saying it is a “Russian fabrication”, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admitted that the situation is “very difficult”. The Ukrainian General Staff also said on Friday: “Reports about the alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units by the enemy in the Kursk region are false”.

Ukraine suddenly sent troops to attack Russia's Kursk Region and occupied part of this territory in August last year with the aim of creating leverage in future negotiations.

However, analysts say this was a wrong move by Kiev. This occupation has further stretched Ukraine’s already under-resourced army along a front line of more than 1,000 km, leading to successive breaches and captures on key fronts in the east of the country.

Russian forces (shown in red and white areas) are said to have surrounded and blocked the retreat of Ukrainian troops (yellow) in the Kursk Region.

Meanwhile, Russia is considered to have had a reasonable strategy by not quickly pushing Ukrainian forces out of Kursk, instead only maintaining a moderate fight to continue attracting Kiev's resources to this front.

In particular, only when the recent peace negotiations began to take shape did Russian forces intensify their offensive, but instead of driving the enemy army back into Ukraine, they instead adopted encirclement tactics, in order to gain another important card on the negotiating table. If all these calculations were to come true, it would make Kiev's Kursk offensive a failure on all fronts.

Still, President Zelenskyy defended his strategy, telling reporters that the Kursk offensive had succeeded in diverting Russian forces from other parts of the front. "I can only thank our fighters for the Kursk operation. I believe it has accomplished its mission," he said.

Hoang Huy (according to TASS, Truth Social, Reuters)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/tong-thong-putin-noi-se-tha-cho-quan-doi-ukraine-o-kursk-sau-loi-cau-khan-cua-ong-trump-post338593.html