KYIV: President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on beleaguered Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk to “surrender” as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian leader of seeking to sabotage a ceasefire initiative.
US President Donald Trump urged Putin to spare the lives of the Ukrainian troops as he said his envoy had held “productive” talks with Russia’s leader on a proposed 30-day ceasefire.
Russia has mounted a rapid counteroffensive in the western border region of Kursk over the past week, recapturing much of the territory Ukraine seized in a shock incursion last August.
Defeat in Kursk would be a major blow to Ukraine’s plans to use its hold on the region as a bargaining chip in peace talks for the three-year-old war.
“We are sympathetic to President Trump’s call,” Putin said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
“If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment,” Putin said.
Trump said “thousands” of Ukrainian troops were “completely surrounded by the Russian military, and in a very bad and vulnerable position.”
“I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II,” Trump said.
Ukraine’s military leadership denied the claims. “There is no threat of our units being encircled,” Ukraine’s General Staff posted on social media.
Zelensky gave a more sober assessment in comments to reporters in Kyiv. “The situation in the Kursk region is obviously very difficult,” he said, while insisting the campaign still had value.
Russia, he said, had been forced to pull troops from other areas on the front line, easing pressure on Ukrainian troops fighting to keep control of the eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Trump’s latest comments came as he gave an update on a meeting Thursday between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin on a US-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day pause in hostilities.
“We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Putin said Thursday that he had “serious questions” about the proposal and that events in Kursk would influence the next moves toward a ceasefire.
Zelensky accused the Russian leader of seeking to undermine the ceasefire initiative.
“He is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire,” Zelensky posted on X.
The Kremlin said Friday that it was “cautiously optimistic” a deal could be reached, but that Trump and Putin had to speak directly before talks could progress.
US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said in a Fox News interview that the United States had “some cautious optimism” after Witkoff’s visit.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a meeting of the Group of Seven western powers in Canada that both sides would have to make “concessions.”
G7 foreign ministers warned Russia of new sanctions unless it accepted a ceasefire “on equal terms,” saying sanctions could include “caps on oil prices, as well as additional support for Ukraine, and other means.”
France and Germany accused Russia of seeking to block a ceasefire, and support for Ukraine was to be discussed again in a video conference of some European leaders with Zelensky on Saturday.
Diplomatic sources said EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas would propose that the 27-country bloc supply up to 40 billion euros ($43.5 billion) in new military aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine hoped its hold on Kursk would be a bargaining chips in talks with Russia and way eyeing a potential land swap with Moscow, which has occupied around a fifth of Ukraine since it took Crimea in 2014 and launched its military offensive in February 2022.
Putin tells Ukraine troops in Russian region to ‘surrender’
https://arab.news/g3h7q
Putin tells Ukraine troops in Russian region to ‘surrender’
- “We are sympathetic to President Trump’s call,” Putin said
- “If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment”
Treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended VP is further eroding peace deal, UN experts say
- The experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country
- “Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said
UNITED NATIONS: The treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended vice president is further eroding a 2018 peace agreement he signed with President Salva Kiir, UN experts warned in a new report.
As Riek Machar’s trial is taking place in the capital, Juba, the experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country and there is a threat of renewed major conflict.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council last month that the crisis in South Sudan is escalating, “a breaking point” has become visible, and time is running “dangerously short” to bring the peace process back on track.
There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, but the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions, when forces loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled those loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuer.
More than 400,000 people were killed in the war, which ended with the 2018 peace agreement that brought Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. But implementation has been slow, and a long-delayed presidential election is now scheduled for December 2026.
The panel of UN experts stressed in a report this week that the political and security landscape in South Sudan looks very different today than it did in 2018 and that “the conflict that now threatens looks much different to those that came before.”
“Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said, “resulting in a patchwork of uniformed soldiers, defectors and armed community defense groups that are increasingly preoccupied by local struggles and often unenthused by the prospect of a national confrontation. ”
With limited supplies and low morale, South Sudan’s military has relied increasingly on aerial bombings that are “relatively indiscriminate” to disrupt the opposition, the experts said.
In a major escalation of tensions in March, a Nuer militia seized an army garrison. Kiir’s government responded, charging Machar and seven other opposition figures with treason, murder, terrorism and other crimes.
The UN experts said Kiir and his allies insist that, despite having dismissed Machar, implementation of the peace agreement is unaffected, pointing to a faction of the opposition led by Stephen Par Kuol that is still engaged in the peace process.
Those who refused to join Kuol and sided with Machar’s former deputy, Natheniel Oyet, “have largely been removed from their positions, forcing many to flee the country,” the experts said in the report.
The African Union, regional countries and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, have all called for Machar’s release and stressed their strong support for implementation of the 2018 agreement, the panel said.
According to the latest international assessment, 7.7 million people — 57 percent of the population — face “crisis” levels of food insecurity, with pockets of famine in some communities most affected by renewed fighting, the panel said.
