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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday accused President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia of trying to surround Kyiv’s forces in Russia’s Kursk region to improve his position amid cease-fire talks with Washington, but said that Ukraine’s forces had not been trapped.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had retaken two villages outside Sudzha, the main Russian town that Ukraine occupied in the Kursk region. Ukraine’s general staff has not publicly commented on Russia’s capture of Sudzha.
Fighting is raging in and around the part of the Kursk region that Ukraine seized in a surprise offensive into Russian territory last summer. The Kremlin is pressing an advancing offensive to take back its land there, while prolonging negotiations over a cease-fire that Washington and Kyiv proposed this week.
Mr. Putin on Friday called on Ukrainian forces still fighting in the Kursk region to lay down their arms and said he would spare their lives if they surrendered. He also said Ukrainian forces were encircled, an assertion that President Trump repeated in a message on Truth Social.
Mr. Zelensky, speaking to journalists in Kyiv, called the claim untrue.
“There are Ukrainian troops in Kursk region,” he said. “Their encirclement is Putin’s lie.”
Russia’s forces, however, are attempting to cut off and trap Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region by pushing into the neighboring Sumy region in Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky said, adding that Kyiv was countering the threat.
He said the Russian military’s actions demonstrated that Moscow was not interested in peace.
The Ukrainians’ ability to respond to the conflict was hampered by a power outage that affected their command center, the Ukrainian military said. The power outage was caused by a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which killed at least six people and injured 30 others.
Mr. Trump, in his Truth Social post, said his administration had held “very good and productive discussions” with Mr. Putin, “and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”
The two leaders are expected to speak over the phone, after Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow and met with Mr. Putin to discuss the cease-fire proposal this week.
In the meantime, Russia is escalating on the battlefield.
Ukraine is reeling from a temporary cutoff of U.S. military aid and intelligence assistance last week. Moscow has been sending small assault and sabotage groups to do reconnaissance, test Ukrainian defenses and try to set the stage for a bigger push, Ukrainian officials said.
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