Zelensky: No surrounding Ukrainian troops in the Course region

Zelensky: No surrounding Ukrainian troops in the Course region

President Wolodymyr Selenskyj has stated that Ukrainian troops in the region Kursk be, and accused the Russian President Vladimir Putin to lie about the location on site.

Ukrainian offensive in Kursk

The Ukrainian push in Kursk began in August when Ukraine quickly conquered territory. This was the first soil invasion of Russia due to foreign power since World War II. The aim of the offensive was to deduct Moscow's resources from the front lines in the east and to gain land that could possibly be exchanged for Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.

Putin's claims and their refutation

Although the situation for Kiev is tense in Kursk, Selenskyj and military analysts have the claims of Putin, which were also supported by US President Donald Trump. Putin had explained on Thursday that the Russian armed forces had "isolated" the Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk and it was "impossible" that they could free themselves in small groups of two or three soldiers.

"There are only two options: surrender or die," said Putin.

Ukrainian and independent analyzes

Although Trump did not explicitly referred to Kursk, Putin later told the Russian security council that he had "taken note of" Trump's appeal for the rescue of Ukrainian life in the region. But Ukrainian officials and independent analysts rejected Putin and Trump's claims as wrong.

The Institute for the Study of War, an American conflict surveillance center, said on Friday that "no geolocalized evidence" had been observed that indicated that Russian armed forces had been surrounded by a significant number of Ukrainian armed forces in Kursk or elsewhere on the front line.

The Ukrainian military said that Russia lies to form the impression of events on site. "Reports about the alleged 'surrounding' Ukrainian units by the enemy in the Tense region are wrong and fabricated by the Russians for political manipulation and to put pressure on Ukraine and its partners," said the military. "There is no threat to the surrounding of our units," they added, emphasizing that their units in Kursk were "successfully rehearsed" after they had "withdrawn" on the offensive Russia.

Current developments and conclusion

In an update on Saturday, Selenskyj said that he was informed by the Ukrainian commander -in -chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and again emphasized that the Ukrainian troops were not surrounded. "The units fulfill their tasks as required" and continue resistance to Russian and North Korean troops, said Selenskyj.

Although Russian military bloggers claimed that Ukraine in Cursk suffered area losses, some of them also denied the reports that Moscow had "surrounded" Kiev.

The ISW suggested that Putin makes questionable claims about the Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in order to distract from its unclear about the ceasefire offer supported by the USA. Kiev agreed to the proposal during talks with US representatives in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, while Putin gave an ambiguous answer and first said "We agree with the proposal" before claiming that the agreement was "not complete".

"Putin tries to present himself as a reasonable and gracious leader with which President Trump can get in touch, and to create a new narrative in order to approve of Russia's refusal to agree to the ceasefire offering," wrote the ISW.

On Saturday, the Department of Defense in Russia released a video from Sudzha, which was geolocalized by CNN and shows the city after its “liberation” by Russian troops. The video shows destroyed residential buildings, streets littered with rubble and the bodies of soldiers who died in combat.