President Donald Trump has said repeatedly that Ukrainian soldiers are “encircled” in the Russian region of Kursk, despite being told by the CIA and other intelligence agencies that this isn’t true, according to Reuters.
Trump has even boasted of saving “surrounded” Ukrainian soldiers in the area, in Russia’s southwest, straddling the Sumy region in the northeast of Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive in the area in August, but their progress was stymied by Trump’s decision to stop military aid and pause intelligence-sharing between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv.
Trump has now publicly claimed several times that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces have become “encircled” by Vladimir Putin’s. On March 14, he wrote on Truth Social that they are “completely surrounded.” He again made the assertion during a visit to the Kennedy Center on Monday.
The president’s most recent claim came when he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham earlier this week that “Russia has the advantage.”
“They have encircled about 2,500 [Ukrainian] soldiers. They are nicely encircled, that’s not good,” he said, despite denials from Ukrainian authorities.
Now, three U.S. and European officials familiar with the situation have told Reuters that, despite definite pressure on Ukrainian troops in the region, they are not encircled, as Trump has said.
The sources told the news wire that the White House has been informed of that by intelligence agencies, including the CIA, over the past week. Even still, Trump has continued to talk about their encirclement.
The assertions echo those by his Russian counterpart, Putin, who said on March 13 that Ukrainian troops in Kursk were cut off and would ultimately need to “surrender or die.”
That, Reuters reports, is an attempt by Putin to make it seem that he is showing humanity and offering concessions, in a bid to strengthen his hand in peace negotiations.
“Both sides are maneuvering to get into a better position for the negotiations,” Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and security adviser, told the news wire.
Trump, meanwhile, agreed to share intelligence on Kursk with Zelensky after a productive call between the two leaders on Wednesday. While acknowledging his forces are under pressure in Kursk, Zelensky denied they were encircled.
Reached for comment by the Daily Beast, the White House did not address Trump’s “encirclement” claim but pointed to a portion of a joint statement made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
“They reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely between their defense staffs as the battlefield situation evolved,” the White House said. “President Zelenskyy asked for additional air defense systems to protect his civilians, particularly Patriot missile systems, President Trump agreed to work with him to find what was available particularly in Europe.”
