Vladimir Putin says Ukraine must surrender after Donald Trump calls for soldiers to be spared

Vladimir Putin said Ukraine must surrender after President Donald Trump urged the Russian leader to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, following ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Russia in Moscow.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Thursday’s discussions with Russia “very good and productive” and said there is a “very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”

He also claimed that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are surrounded.

“AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, AND IN A VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE POSITION,” he said.

“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,” he added.

Trump seemed to be referring to the sticking point in Russia’s Kursk region, something Putin has discussed as an issue in the talks. He also appeared to echo remarks Putin made in response to the U.S.-Ukraine ceasefire proposal on Thursday that Ukrainian troops are encircled in Kursk — a scenario Ukraine strongly denied.

Putin responded to Trump’s remarks on Friday, saying the soldiers need to surrender to be spared.

“[In] the event of a ceasefire and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and a worthy treatment in accordance with the norms of international law and the laws of the Russian Federation,” he said.

MORE: Several Ukrainian drones intercepted overnight just 2 miles away from Kremlin, Russia says

Ukraine pushed back Friday against the claims that its troops are surrounded in the Kursk region, where Putin this week ordered forces to “destroy” all Ukrainian formations remaining in the contested border region.

“The reports about the supposed ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region are false and are being fabricated by the Russians for political purposes and to put pressure on Ukraine and its partners,” the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in a statement on Friday.

“The threat of encirclement of our units is absent,” it added.

The statement comes a day after Putin referred to an “encirclement” in the Kursk region while remarking on the U.S.-Ukraine ceasefire proposal.

“We are for it. But there is a nuance,” Putin said of a 30-day ceasefire during a press briefing. “First, what are we going to do with the encirclement in the Kursk region?”

He said the situation in Kursk is “completely under our control, and the group that invaded our territory is in isolation,” and that it would be “very good for the Ukrainian side to reach a truce for at least 30 days.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy countered Friday that Putin is “lying” about the conflict and is blocking any diplomatic efforts to end the war.

“Putin is lying about the real situation on the battlefield, he is lying about the casualties, he is lying about the true state of his economy, which has been damaged by his foolish imperial ambitions, and he is doing everything possible to ensure that diplomacy fails,” he said.

“Putin cannot exit this war because that would leave him with nothing,” he continued. “That is why he is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire.”

The claim that Ukrainian forces are surrounded was also shot down by defense analyst Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment who focuses on the Russian and Ukrainian militaries, who called it “simply untrue.”

MORE: Putin demands Kursk total victory ahead of Moscow talks with Trump envoy

George Barros, the Russian team lead for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War, also reacted on X to Trump’s remarks, saying, “Available evidence from the battlefield does not indicate any Russian encirclements of Ukrainian forces at scale, and certainly not by the thousands.”

Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk last August in a surprise offensive, seizing the town of Sudzha and surrounding villages. Kyiv’s troops have repelled months of Russian counteroffensives, but recent weeks have seen their salient crumble and Russian forces retake significant ground.

During a visit to a command center in Kursk on Wednesday while clad in military fatigues, Putin said, “Your task is to completely destroy the enemy, which has entrenched itself in the Kursk region and is still conducting warfare here, and fully liberate the Kursk region’s territory within the shortest possible time.”

On Wednesday, Russian troops raised their flags over central Sudzha in Kursk as Ukrainian forces hurriedly retreated toward the shared border.

Russian advances to the border in the Kursk Oblast appeared to have slowed on Thursday compared to recent days, according to the latest assessment from the Institute for the Study of War.

The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said Friday that the situation “has not undergone significant changes over the past day,” and that troops are “regrouping” and have withdrawn to “more advantageous defense lines.”

“Our soldiers are repelling enemy offensive actions and delivering effective fire damage with all types of weapons,” it said.

Russian officials have indicated they will not engage in peace negotiations while any of Kursk remains under Ukrainian control.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin in Moscow on Thursday to discuss the proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine — a step leaders in Kyiv and Washington, D.C., hope will facilitate a larger peace deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion of its neighbor.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there is “reason to be cautiously optimistic” about a ceasefire and said Putin and Trump now need to talk. The timing of that conversation will be determined once Witkoff reports to Trump, he said.

Vladimir Putin says Ukraine must surrender after Donald Trump calls for soldiers to be spared originally appeared on abcnews.go.com