Exclusive intelligence shared with the White House shows that Ukrainians are not “surrounded” in Kursk
Written by Erin Banco
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk have failed in recent days but have not been surrounded by Russian forces, contrary to recent comments by U.S. and European President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to three U.S. and Europe familiar with government intelligence assessments.
Over the week, U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, shared the assessment with the White House, said U.S. officials and another person familiar with the matter. However, Trump continues to claim that Ukrainian troops are surrounded in the Kursk region in western Russia.
Officials said U.S. and European intelligence assessments show that Ukrainian troops are under enormous pressure from Russian forces but are not fully surrounded.
Trump said he hopes to end Russia’s war in Ukraine quickly. Experts describe Putin’s claim on March 13 that Ukrainian troops in Kursk were cut off and eventually needed to “surrender or die” because the purpose of the misunderstanding was to show that Russia was providing concessions by saving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, thus providing Putin’s leverage in the ceasefire negotiations.
Trump said in a March 14 social media post that he had asked the Russian president to save the lives of thousands of Ukrainians who he said were “completely surrounded” and vulnerable. Putin said he would do it if they surrendered.
Trump repeated claims about Ukrainian forces in a Fox News interview on Tuesday during a speech at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Rather than responding directly to questions about intelligence assessments, the National Security Council recommended Reuters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, a joint statement that mentioned Trump’s call with Zelenskiy on Wednesday and how the two leaders agreed to continue sharing intelligence with Kursk.
The White House, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denied Ukrainian troops being surrounded and said Putin lied in reality.
The Ukrainian leader admitted that his army was in a tough position in Kursk and he expected that Russia would continue to launch attacks when it attempted to push Ukrainian troops out of the region.
Zelenskiy’s office and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Since August, Kiev has lost nearly all its territory when Ukrainian soldiers smashed their own way on the western Russian border of Kursk. According to open source, it once held nearly 500 square miles of land, but now it only has 20 to 30 square miles.
Trump spoke with Putin on Tuesday. The Russian leader said in that call that he would stop attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days, a promise that was insufficient to Trump’s all 30-day ceasefire rate, while Zelenskiy said he would be ready to accept Ukraine.
“This is likely part of Putin’s efforts to win the war, resistance is useless, and inevitably, Russia’s greater strength will lead to victory. This resonates with Trump,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps Colonel and senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Both sides are manipulating the better position of negotiations.”
While Russian troops appear to have made additional progress in Kursk, officials speaking with Reuters and experts who are studying the battlefield said Putin’s March 13 statement was inaccurate.
“No evidence of geographical allocation was observed that Russian troops have surrounded the large number of Ukrainian troops in the Uksk Prefecture in Kursk or elsewhere in the Ukrainian frontline,” the War Institute, a U.S.-based conflict monitoring agency, said on March 14.
(Reported by Erin Banco; Editors by Don Durfee and Nia Williams)
