Despite recent comments by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian forces have not been encircled by Russian troops in the Kursk region or anywhere else on the frontlines.
Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk have lost ground in recent days, but have not been encircled by Russian forces, despite recent claims by US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Over past week, both presidents repeatedly said that “thousands” of Ukrainian troops have been surrounded by the Russian military in the Kursk region.
Trump said he had asked Putin to spare them.
“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!!!” Trump said.
But both Ukrainian authorities and military commanders have denied these claims, saying that Ukraine is pulling back from the Russian territory it captured in a surprise incursion last summer, but that no forces have been encircled.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated that it has observed “no geolocated evidence” to indicate that Russian forces have encircled a significant number of Ukrainian forces in Kursk or anywhere else along the Ukrainian frontline.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Russian forces are concentrating on the border with Kursk border with Ukraine’s Sumy region and may be preparing new attacks there, as well as in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.
The ISW believes these plans might be part of a different strategy that Moscow is likely pursuing. The Kremlin continues to demand that Ukraine cede its territory that Russia does not currently occupy and to set conditions to make further territorial demands.
This could explain the recent Russian offensive operation in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces are intensifying their push, likely towards Zaporizhzhia city amid continued Kremlin demands that Ukraine cede all of this southern region to Russia.
Over the past few days the issue of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest such facility in Europe, has been repeatedly discussed between Kyiv and Washington.
On Wednesday, the White House proposed that Ukraine could cede control of its power plants to the US as part of ongoing ceasefire talks.
“The United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing.
Zelenskyy said that he discussed with Trump the possibility of US assistance in restoring the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plan, but not its ownership.
“All nuclear power plans belong to the people of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said, pointing out that they are owned by state, even if they are “temporarily occupied” by Russia.
Russian forces seized control of the Zaporizhzhia NPP in the early days of the full-scale invasion and have since turned it into a military base and a launchpad for drone attacks targeting Ukraine-controlled territories, Ukrainian authorities said.
According to Enerhodar’s exiled mayor, Dmytro Orlov, around 1000 Russian soldiers have been deployed on the plant’s territory as of last summer.
Additional sources • ISW
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