President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday accused President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia of making an attempt to encompass Kyiv’s forces in Russia’s Kursk area to enhance his place amid cease-fire talks with Washington, however mentioned that Ukraine’s forces had not been trapped.
Russia’s Protection Ministry, in the meantime, mentioned its forces had retaken two villages exterior Sudzha, the primary Russian city that Ukraine occupied within the Kursk area. The Ukrainian basic employees has not publicly commented on Russia’s capture of Sudzha. However on Saturday morning, it launched a map of the battlefield displaying the city exterior Ukrainian-controlled territory within the Kursk area.
Combating is raging in and across the a part of the Kursk area that Ukraine seized in a shock offensive into Russian territory final summer time. The Kremlin is urgent an advancing offensive to take again its land there, whereas prolonging negotiations over a cease-fire that Washington and Kyiv proposed this week.
Mr. Putin on Friday known as on Ukrainian forces nonetheless preventing within the Kursk area to lay down their arms and mentioned he would spare their lives in the event that they surrendered. He additionally mentioned Ukrainian forces had been encircled there, an assertion that President Trump repeated in a message on Reality Social.
Mr. Zelensky, talking to journalists in Kyiv, known as the declare unfaithful.
“There are Ukrainian troops in Kursk area,” he mentioned. “Their encirclement is Putin’s lie.”
Russia’s forces, nevertheless, are trying to chop off and lure Ukrainian troops within the Kursk area by pushing into the neighboring Sumy area in Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky mentioned, including that Kyiv was countering the risk.
He mentioned the Russian army’s actions demonstrated that Moscow was not considering peace.
Russia’s growing capability to strike the street popping out of Sudzha into Ukraine has made withdrawals from the Kursk area perilous for Ukrainian forces, Ukrainian officers mentioned on situation of anonymity to debate the battlefield scenario. They famous, nevertheless, that the troops weren’t absolutely surrounded.
It was not clear what number of Ukrainian forces remained within the Kursk area as of Saturday, with lots of them having withdrawn in latest weeks.
Moscow has been incensed for months by Ukraine’s occupation of elements of the Kursk area, the primary time Russian land has been seized by a overseas energy since World Battle II. At one level final yr, Russian officers mentioned negotiations with Ukraine had been out of the query whereas Kyiv’s forces had been nonetheless occupying the land.
Mr. Putin beforehand rejected the thought of a truce or cease-fire, presenting any momentary pause in preventing as a battlefield profit to Ukraine’s beleaguered forces.However when President Trump’s administration brokered a 30-day cease-fire with Ukrainian officers and proposed it to Mr. Putin this week, the Russian chief soft-pedaled his rejection.
Mr. Putin, within the obvious hope of constant Moscow’s speedy rapprochement with Washington whereas additionally pursuing his battlefield goals, mentioned that “the thought itself is a the suitable one, and we undoubtedly assist it, however there are questions we have to talk about.”
The Russian chief then proceeded to put out circumstances for a cease-fire recognized to be unacceptable to Kyiv, together with calls for that Ukraine stop mobilizing new troopers, coaching troops or importing weapons at some stage in any pause in preventing.
Mr. Trump, in his Reality Social submit on Friday, mentioned his administration had held “excellent and productive discussions” with Mr. Putin, “and there’s a excellent likelihood that this horrible, bloody warfare can lastly come to an finish.”
The 2 leaders are anticipated to talk over the telephone, after Mr. Trump’s particular envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow and met with Mr. Putin to debate the cease-fire proposal this week.
Within the meantime, Russia is escalating on the battlefield.
Russia is accumulating forces alongside the Ukrainian border between the Kursk and Sumy areas upfront of what Ukrainian officers anticipate to be a significant offensive effort to drive throughout the border and lower off Ukrainian troops in Kursk.
In latest days, Russia has despatched small assault and sabotage teams to do reconnaissance, take a look at Ukrainian defenses and attempt to set the stage for a much bigger push, Ukrainian officers mentioned. Mr. Zelensky’s feedback underscored the risk.
As Ukraine reeled from a brief cutoff of U.S. military aid and intelligence help final week, Moscow stepped up its efforts to retake Kursk. The Russians are pushing in from a number of instructions, because the Ukrainians retreat to extra defensible positions, Ukrainian officers and analysts mentioned.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, reiterated Mr. Putin’s provide to Ukrainian troopers to give up and save their lives in feedback to the state information company Tass on Saturday.
“It’s nonetheless legitimate,” Mr. Peskov mentioned, though he added that “time was working out.”
The mere point out of encirclement hits a nerve for a lot of Ukrainians. Efforts to avoid wasting the lives of Ukrainian troopers who had been surrounded have twice earlier than performed key roles in negotiations with Russia — in 2014, within the metropolis of Ilovaisk, and in 2015, within the metropolis of Debaltseve.
Each are remembered in Ukraine as searing experiences, with concessions provided solely to have, in Ukraine’s view, Russia renege and open fireplace anyway.
In 2015, Russian forces attacked a number of thousand Ukrainian troopers in a precarious place within the city of Debaltseve, which had a single entry street for retreat and resupply. Stop-fire negotiations that led to the agreement known as Minsk 2 — an unsuccessful earlier effort to resolve preventing in jap Ukraine — started when this street was below direct line of fireplace from Russian tanks however was not bodily managed by Russian troopers.
This circumstance left ambiguous whether or not the city was surrounded. In negotiations, Mr. Putin had argued that the scenario equated to surrounding the troops.
Ukraine granted political concessions within the Minsk 2 settlement to avoid wasting the surrounded troopers. Russia later took the place that the cease-fire utilized to the entrance line however to not troopers who had been already encircled. The Ukrainian contingent retreated below fireplace in a pre-dawn sprint a number of days later and greater than 100 troopers had been killed.
The preventing comes amid a rise in diplomatic exercise geared toward addressing the battle.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain warned Saturday that the West can’t enable Mr. Putin to “play video games with President Trump’s deal,” because the British chief convened a virtual summit of worldwide leaders dedicated to aiding Ukraine.
“The Kremlin’s full disregard for President Trump’s cease-fire proposal solely serves to display that Putin isn’t critical about peace,” the British chief mentioned.
Whilst consideration targeted on the Kursk area, assaults continued elsewhere on the entrance.
In a single day, Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 178 drones at Ukrainian cities, the Ukrainian authorities mentioned. The missiles struck a residential district in Kryvyi Rih, Mr. Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine, injuring 14 individuals, together with two youngsters, in response to the native authorities.
Andrew E. Kramer, Fixed Méheut and Marc Santora in Kyiv contributed reporting.
