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.
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