Russian President Vladimir Putin said on March 14 that Ukrainian soldiers must surrender in Kursk Oblast after U.S. President Donald Trump's request to "spare" the troops he claimed are surrounded.
The General Staff said that Ukrainian units "have regrouped, moved to more favorable defense lines, and are completing their assigned tasks" in Kursk Oblast.
Speaking during a meeting of Russia's Security Council, Putin claimed that some Ukrainian troops "are blocked" in the embattled Russian region.
"In order to effectively implement the U.S. president's call, an appropriate order from Ukraine's military and political leadership to its military units is necessary," Putin said.
Neither Trump nor Putin provided evidence that Ukrainian troops are currently surrounded at any location.
The Russian president claimed that Moscow "will guarantee life and decent treatment in accordance with international law" to captured Ukrainian soldiers.
This claim is at odds with reports about Russia's treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs). There have been multiple accounts of Ukrainian POWs being tortured or killed while in Russian captivity.
The POWs that returned from Russian captivity as part of prisoner exchanges required medical attention after facing food deprivation and beatings by Russian prison guards.
As of mid-December 2024, Kyiv has also found that 177 captured Ukrainian soldiers were executed on the spot while attempting to surrender. Instances of summary executions have been reported in Kursk Oblast as well.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists on March 14 that the Kursk operation "has completed its task." He said that Ukraine was able to stabilize the situation near Pokrovsk as well.
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi acknowledged on March 12 the "difficult situation" in the region but said that Ukraine will hold the defenses "as long as reasonable and necessary."
Ukraine launched the cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024, initially seizing around 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory. Since then, Russian forces, reinforced by North Korean troops, have steadily pushed back against Ukrainian forces.
Oleg Sukhov
(Updated: )
