Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called his military operation in Russia’s border Kursk region as successful and denied reports that Ukrainian troops have been encircled in the region.
“I believe the mission is accomplished. I think that the situation in the Pokrovsk direction is now stable, and it will be very difficult to find an opportunity to occupy Pokrovsk again,” Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
Furthermore, he explained that Ukrainian troops’ surprise incursion into Kursk in early August was aimed to lure Russian troops away from Pokrovsk in the direction of more Ukrainian-secure areas in Kharkiv and Sumy.
“The first pressure fell on the Kharkiv direction. Russians pulled as many of their troops as possible from there to Kursk. Then they began to withdraw from the eastern direction but did not abandon their main task - Pokrovsk,” he said. Zelenskiy further denied reports that Ukrainian troops were encircled in Kursk, stressing that Ukraine had presence in Russia’s border region.
“The encirclement of the Ukrainian military is a lie by Putin. There is no encirclement of the Ukrainian military in the Kursk region,” Zelenskiy said. His comments follow a statements by US Donald Trump on Friday, who asked Russia's Vladimir Putin on social media to spare the lives of Ukrainian troops that he said were "completely surrounded" by the Russian army.
Ukrainian troops recently withdrew from key settlements in Kursk. Zelenskiy said Russia was aiming to encircle troops in the area but from Ukrainian territory.
