Russian troops appear close to guiding Ukraine from all over the territory that seized in the Kursk Russia region last year, a perspective that President Trump seemed to recognize in a post on social media on Friday.
Later, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia insisted on the fact that Ukraine ordered some of his strength to Kursk to surrender.
The Russian thrust in Kursk seemed to accelerate after Trump blocked military aid and supporting the intelligence for Ukraine on March 3. The flow of aid has taken up this week while Ukraine agreed on a Trump administration proposal for a ceased 30 days with Russia.
Thursday, Putin said he was open to the proposal but would have tried to negotiate for a series of issues.
Both Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump said on Friday that Ukrainian forces were surrounded in Kursk, where Kiev’s troops amazed Russia with a cross -border incursion last summer.
Independent analysts contested these statements and on Friday the Ukrainian soldiers rejected them. But the Russian forces recently had the upper hand in Kursk fights.
“I strongly asked President Putin that their lives were spared,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Here is a look at the Ukrainian incursion – the first on Russian soil from the Second World War – and how Russian troops are fighting.
Why is Kursk important?
Kursk is an area of western Russia that borders the Ucraine’s Sumy region. Sumy was thinking for a long time was a place where Russia could try to open a new front in its invasion on the vast scale of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
But in a move that also surprised its key allies, the Ukrainian troops caught Moscow off by the abruptly last summer, pouring through a shortly defended border and opening a new front alone.
The main objectives, a Ukrainian colonel, told the New York Times, to deviate Russian troops from the extension that fight in the eastern region of Donbas in Ukraine, pushing Moscow artillery out of the distance of the Sumy region and damage Russian morality.
A few weeks after the incursion, Ukraine had established control over a slice of Kursk that its officials said that it included almost 500 square miles of agricultural land and settlements. Although a fragment of Russia barely, the largest country in the world, the assault was an embarrassment for Mr. Putin. He also surprised that the Ukrainian allies, including the United States, that they had not been said in advance.
The most important city of Kursk that the Ukrainian forces seized was Southzha, an administrative center with a population of about 5,000 people before the incursion.
Analysts said that Ukraine offensive was a bet, lengthening its military resources at a time when Kiev’s troops were struggling to defend a long line on the front line in their territory.
Zelensky said that its military did not want to remain on the Russian soil indefinitely and that the territory earned in Kursk could be used to strengthen Ukraine’s position in the future negotiations with Moscow.
How did Russia replied?
Initially, instead of deviating a large number of troops to defend Kursk, Putin said that Eastern Ukraine has remained Moscow’s main military goal. Russian troops continued their progressive advancement in Ukraine, taking the city of Vuhledar in October and then pushing more to the west.
Weeks from the incursion to Kursk, the thrust of Ukraine slowed down and her troops gradually began to lose ground while the Russian forces sided there in greater numbers.
So, in the autumn, Russia received a push from its North Korea alloa, which deployed about 11,000 soldiers in Kursk to help Moscow’s defense. The initially nervous Ukrainian deposit and its allies. But the North Korean troops immediately waves after waves of strong losses and, for a certain period, were withdrawn from the first line.
In recent weeks, Russian forces, assisted by North Korean fighters, have quickly advanced to Kursk, using drones and combat jets to resume most of the territory that Ukraine had held.
The best Ukrainian military commander, General Oleksandr Syrsky, rejected the idea of an immediate Ukrainian retreat from the area. On Wednesday evening he said that Ukrainian troops would “keep the line in the Kursk region all the time that remains reasonable and necessary”.
Thursday, the Ministry of Defense of Russia said that his forces had resumed Southzha. There have been no immediate comments from Ukraine. If confirmed, that Russian advance would leave only small Russian land pockets along the border under Ukrainian control.
Maria Varenikova AND Anton Troianovski Contributed relationships.