Ukraine's General Staff says claims of "encirclement" in Russia's Kursk Oblast are untrue, just political pressure

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has denied reports that Ukrainian units in Russia’s Kursk Oblast are encircled, as Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump have claimed.

Source: a statement by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook

Quote: "Reports of the enemy's alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units in Kursk Oblast are untrue and are being created by the Russians for political purposes and to put pressure on Ukraine and its partners.

The situation has not changed significantly over the past day. Combat operations are ongoing in the operational area of the Kursk military grouping."

Details: The statement said that Ukraine’s defence forces units have regrouped and "moved to more favourable defence lines".

"Our soldiers are repelling the enemy's offensive actions and inflicting effective fire damage on them using all types of weapons. There have been 13 combat clashes on the Kursk front since the beginning of the day. There is no threat of encirclement of our units," the statement said.

Update: General Staff spokesperson Dmytro Lykhovii told Ukrainska Pravda that this is not the first time the Russian propaganda machine has spread disinformation about the encirclement of a large number of Ukrainian troops in Kursk Oblast.

For example, on 25 October 2024, Putin claimed that 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been surrounded in Kursk Oblast. "Both then and now, this is an outright fake and wishful thinking in the absence of their ability to achieve the 'desired' outcome," Lykhovii added.

Background:

• Trump said on 14 March that he had had productive discussions with Putin. At the same time, he claimed that "thousands of Ukrainian troops are completely surrounded by the Russian military, and in a very bad and vulnerable position".
• Putin made a similar statement to the media on Thursday.

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