President Trump said on Friday he "strongly requested" that Russian President Vladimir Putin "spare the lives" of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, whom he claimed were "surrounded" in the Kursk region in Russia.
Ukraine launched a risky cross-border incursion into Kursk last August and occupied a significant swath of Russian territory, but Russia has been making rapid gains in recent weeks and putting those forces under severe pressure. Trump claimed the troops now faced a potential "massacre."
Putin raised the fate of the Ukrainian forces in Kursk as a key issue to be resolved before he would consider Trump's proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.
Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, acknowledged the "difficult situation" on Tuesday but said Ukrainian forces were not surrounded and were moving to "more favorable" defensive positions. He said Ukraine would fight on in Kursk "as long as reasonable and necessary."
Ukraine has not yet said whether it supports Trump's call for its troops to be given safe passage out of Kursk.
Posted by John3262005
7 Comments
>Driving the news: Putin raised the fate of the Ukrainian forces in Kursk as a key issue to be resolved before he would consider Trump’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire
This is code for they have to surrender themselves before you get your ceasefire, which is code for you aren’t getting your ceasefire
I remember watching [the green corridor](https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/how-10-years-ago-russia-turned-the-promise-of-a-green-corridor-from-ilovaisk-into-a-deadly-trap-1999) massacre as it happened. No fucking way on this earth anybody should take a “*guarantee*” of safe passage from Russia as anything other than a trap.
I’m going to guess that Trump was briefed that Ukrainian forces in Kursk were in danger of being surrounded, and then he shortened that to those units already being surrounded
I believe the most recent open source information shows the Ukrainians pulling back as Russian forces put increased pressure on the logistical route into the territory
right… Trump doesnt care about anyone, least of all Ukrainian soldiers
“these troops are going to be *massacred*, puhlease let them cede all of Kursk land to Russia” – Putins lapdog, probably
Are they actually surrounded. I haven’t read anything apart from trump saying that they are.
Where did Trump get the idea that they are surrounded? Did Putin tell him this?
So the Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk were going to get out regardless because the military and political leadership in Ukraine knew not to make the same mistake of sacrificing soldiers to unnecessarily hold on to territory.
Trump is going to claim he’s the reason they got out. And he’s going to use that as a pretext to pressure Ukraine to accept Russia’s ridiculous proposals for the ceasefire. When Ukraine says fuck no, Trump will say “Hey, you were going to lose thousands of soldiers before I graciously stepped in and Putin graciously spared your men! Show some respect because you don’t have the cards!”
At least, that’s my cynical view of how this is going to play out. Let’s see.