Talks in Moscow with a U.S. special envoy indicated that Russia was keen to keep negotiating with the United States over Ukraine.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday insisted that Ukraine order some of its forces to surrender to Russia, a striking demand made hours after President Trump said the United States had “very good and productive” discussions with Mr. Putin about a potential cease-fire.
Mr. Putin’s televised comments came shortly after Mr. Trump, on social media, said he had urged the Russian leader to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers struggling to hold on to a patch of land in the Kursk region of Russia.
“I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Both presidents claimed on Friday that Ukrainian forces were surrounded in Kursk, the area where Kyiv’s troops stunned Russia with a cross-border incursion last summer. Independent analysts have challenged those claims, and Ukraine’s military on Friday again rejected them.
Still, Russian forces have of late had the upper hand in the fighting in Kursk. And Mr. Putin said that for Mr. Trump’s call “to be effectively implemented,” the leaders of Ukraine needed to order their “military units to lay down their arms and surrender.” Neither man has raised the idea of Russian troops on Ukrainian land surrendering.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine gave no indication on Friday that his country’s soldiers would withdraw from Kursk, let alone surrender, but acknowledged that the situation in the region was “very difficult.”
He also questioned whether Russia was acting in good faith, accusing Mr. Putin of “doing everything possible to ensure that diplomacy fails.” Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky reiterated, has already agreed to a 30-day, unconditional cease-fire to stop the war that Russia’s leader began by ordering the full-scale invasion three years ago.
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Russia made steady progress in Kursk over the past week
Russian advances
Russian-claimed advances
Ukrainian-held territory
MARCH 6
MARCH 10
MARCH 13
RUSSIA
RUSSIA
RUSSIA
Sudzha
Sudzha
Sudzha
Guyevo
Guyevo
Guyevo
UKRAINE
UKRAINE
UKRAINE
Sumy
Sumy
Russia made steady progress in Kursk
over the past week
Russian advances
Russian-claimed advances
Ukrainian-held territory
MARCH 6
RUSSIA
Sudzha
UKRAINE
Guyevo
MARCH 10
RUSSIA
Sudzha
UKRAINE
Guyevo
MARCH 13
RUSSIA
Sudzha
UKRAINE
Guyevo