Hours after US President Donald Trump publicly pleaded to the Russian leader, President Vladimir Putin doubled down on his demand of Ukrainian soldiers’ surrender in Kursk
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Hours after
US President Donald Trump pleaded the Russian leader to spare Ukrainian soldiers’ lives in Kursk, President Vladimir Putin on Friday asked Ukrainian forces in the province to surrender.
“We are sympathetic to President Trump’s call. If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment,” said Putin in televised remarks, according to AFP.
Reiterating his demand previously stated on Thursday, Putin said that Ukraine’s surrender in Kursk was a must for the 30-day ceasefire proposal to be considered.
“In order to effectively implement the US president’s call, (there needs to be) a corresponding order from Ukraine’s military-political leadership to its military to lay down their arms and surrender,” said Putin.
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Around the same time that Putin sought Ukraine’s surrender in Kursk, senior Russian official Dmitry Medvedev said that if Ukraine wouldn’t surrender in Kursk, the country’s soldiers would be “methodically and mercilessly destroyed”.
In near identical statements, Trump and Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian soldiers are encircled in Kursk. Independent commentators as well as Ukrainian government have refuted the claim. They maintain that while Russia has advanced in Kursk in recent days, Ukrainian troops have not been encircled and do not face imminent massacres as Trump and Putin have claimed.
Earlier in the day, Trump in a post on Truth Social made a nearly-unprecedented plea to Putin. He said he had “requested” Putin to spare Ukrainian soldiers’ lives in Kursk who, as per him and Putin, stood encircled and faced imminent deaths at scale worse than World War II.
“At this very moment, thousands of Ukrainian troops are completely surrounded by the Russian military and in a very bad and vulnerable position. I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II. God bless them all! said Trump.
Putin’s demand of Ukrainian soldiers’ surrender is in line with the list of maximalist demands he listed on Thursday. At a press conference, he said that that while he accepted the idea of a 30-day ceasefire in principle, the