U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that he had a “good discussion” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and stated that there is a significant possibility of the Russia-Ukraine war coming to an end.
Trump said, “There is a strong possibility that the horrific and bloody war between Russia and Ukraine will finally stop.”
Additionally, Trump claimed that Russian forces have encircled Ukrainian troops who entered Russia’s Kursk region. However, he urged Putin not to harm them. In a social media post, Trump wrote, “Yesterday, I had a good conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. There is a possibility that the terrible, bloody war will finally end.”
He further added, “At this moment, several thousand Ukrainian soldiers are completely surrounded by Russian forces and are in a very bad and vulnerable situation. I strongly urged President Putin to spare them. This would be a horrific massacre, something not seen since World War II. May God protect them all.”
However, military analyst Michael Kofman questioned Trump’s claims. He stated that Ukrainian troops were already withdrawing from Kursk on their own and were not completely encircled. While some soldiers were in a vulnerable situation during the retreat, there was no confirmed information about a large-scale encirclement by Russian forces.
A Ukrainian military official told The Guardian, “After seven months, we are just withdrawing. There is no encirclement.”
Additionally, some Russian war bloggers also reported that they had not seen any evidence supporting Russian officials’ claims about the mass encirclement of Ukrainian forces.