Putin calls on Ukraine army to surrender in Kursk region

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Ukrainian troops fighting in the Kursk region to surrender, after US President Donald Trump urged Mr Putin to "spare" the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

"We are sympathetic to President Trump's call," Mr Putin said in televised remarks.

"If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment," Mr Putin added, calling on Ukraine's leaders to issue an order to their troops to surrender.

Ukrainian forces are coming under mounting pressure from the Kremlin's army in the western Russian region of Kursk, President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged, adding fighting was no easier elsewhere on the front.

Since Ukraine launched its cross-border assault into Kursk last August - the largest by a foreign army into Russia since World War II - Moscow has been pushing back.

"The situation in the Kursk region is obviously very difficult," Mr Zelensky said.

He said however that Ukraine's offensive had forced Russia to pull its troops from other embattled areas of the front, easing pressure on Ukrainian troops fighting to keep control of the eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

"I think the situation in the Pokrovsk sector is now stable, and it will be very difficult to find an opportunity to occupy Pokrovsk again," Mr Zelensky said.

His comments came hours after the Russian army said its units had "liberated" the village of Goncharovka on the outskirts of Sudzha, a larger town Russia claimed yesterday.

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The Russian counteroffensive in Kursk has wrested much of the land Ukraine originally captured, denying Ukraine a vital point of leverage over Russia in any potential peace talks.

In some sectors of the border region, Russian troops have crossed the frontier into Ukrainian territory in the Sumy region facing Kursk.

Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian border guard service, told Ukrainian state media that Russian forces were trying to enter Sumy.

"We continue to detect attempts by small assault groups to enter our territory and approach our border," he said.

Russia claimed last week to have captured the village of Novenke, which lies kilometres from a vital resupply route for Ukrainian forces still in Kursk.