Zelenskyy denies claims Ukrainian troops surrounded in Kursk as allies push for ceasefire

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Mar 15, 2025 9:48 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

Ukrainian troops are inactive fending disconnected Russian and North Korean forces successful Russia's Kursk portion but look a imaginable caller onslaught connected Ukraine's northeast Sumy region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said connected Saturday.

Military analysts accidental Russia is adjacent to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-long foothold successful the occidental Russian region, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to pass that thousands were "completely surrounded."

In a connection connected societal media aft being briefed by his apical general, Zelenskyy said Kyiv's troops were not encircled successful Kursk but that Moscow was accumulating forces adjacent for a abstracted strike.

"This indicates an volition to onslaught our Sumy region," helium said. "We are alert of this, and volition antagonistic it."

"I would similar each [our] partners to recognize precisely what Putin is planning, what helium is preparing for, and what helium volition beryllium ignoring."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said connected Thursday helium supported successful rule Trump's connection for a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine but would combat connected until respective important conditions were worked out.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a gathering of European leaders and different allies that they would request to summation unit connected Putin to judge a ceasefire.

At the extremity of the virtual gathering with allies, which Starmer has termed the "coalition of the willing," he said the Kremlin's "dithering and delay" over Trump's ceasefire proposal, on with Russia's "continued barbaric attacks" connected Ukraine, "run wholly counter" to Putin's stated tendency for peace.

Involved successful the telephone were the leaders of 25 countries, including Prime Minister Mark Carney. Other countries included France, Italy, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand, arsenic good arsenic officials from NATO and the European Union's executive. The United States was not represented astatine the meeting.

Starmer has said Britain could nonstop peacekeepers to Ukraine successful the lawsuit of a ceasefire deal, but helium has called connected Washington to connection a information "backstop" to those forces, a measurement helium believes is indispensable to deter Putin from attacking again.

He told participants astatine Saturday's gathering that they, too, had to beryllium prepared to support immoderate deal.

"That means strengthening Ukraine truthful they tin support themselves ... successful presumption of subject capability, successful presumption of funding, successful presumption of the proviso of further enactment from each of america to Ukraine, [and] secondly, being prepared to support immoderate woody ourselves done a conjugation of the willing," helium said.

'Russia is prolonging the war'

"The buildup of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to support ignoring diplomacy," Zelenskyy added. "It is wide that Russia is prolonging the war."

In his statement, helium besides said the battlefield concern adjacent the strategical eastbound Ukrainian metropolis of Pokrovsk had "stabilized," and that Ukraine had successfully utilized a caller domestically produced long-range rocket successful combat.

Kyiv is seeking to grow its home defence manufacture to wean itself disconnected Western allies who person provided captious artillery, air-defence and long-range onslaught capabilities.

Ukraine's caller "long Neptune" rocket has a scope of 1,000 kilometres, Zelenskyy said.