Zelenskyy denies claims Ukrainian troops surrounded in Kursk as allies push for ceasefire

Ukrainian troops are still fending off Russian and North Korean forces in Russia’s Kursk region but face a potential new attack on Ukraine’s northeast Sumy region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

Military analysts say Russia is close to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-long foothold in the western Russian region, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to warn that thousands were “completely surrounded.”

In a statement on social media after being briefed by his top general, Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s troops were not encircled in Kursk but that Moscow was accumulating forces nearby for a separate strike.

“This indicates an intention to attack our Sumy region,” he said. “We are aware of this, and will counter it.”

“I would like all (our) partners to understand exactly what Putin is planning, what he is preparing for, and what he will be ignoring.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he supported in principle Trump’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine but would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a meeting of European leaders and other allies that they would need to increase pressure on Putin to accept a ceasefire.

At the end of the virtual meeting with allies, which Starmer has termed the “coalition of the willing,” he said the Kremlin’s “dithering and delay” over Trump’s ceasefire proposal, along with Russia’s “continued barbaric attacks” on Ukraine, “run entirely counter” to Putin’s stated desire for peace.

Involved in the call were the leaders of 25 countries, including Prime Minister Mark Carney. Other countries included France, Italy, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand, as well as officials from NATO and the European Union’s executive. The United States was not represented at the meeting.

Starmer has said Britain could send peacekeepers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire deal, but he has called on Washington to offer a security “backstop” to those forces, a measure he believes is essential to deter Putin from attacking again.

He told participants at Saturday’s meeting that they, too, had to be prepared to defend any deal.

“That means strengthening Ukraine so they can defend themselves … in terms of military capability, in terms of funding, in terms of the provision of further support from all of us to Ukraine, (and) secondly, being prepared to defend any deal ourselves through a coalition of the willing,” he said.

‘Russia is prolonging the war’

“The buildup of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to keep ignoring diplomacy,” Zelenskyy added. “It is clear that Russia is prolonging the war.”

In his statement, he also said the battlefield situation near the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk had “stabilized,” and that Ukraine had successfully used a new domestically produced long-range missile in combat.

Kyiv is seeking to expand its domestic defence industry to wean itself off Western allies who have provided critical artillery, air-defence and long-range strike capabilities.

Ukraine’s new “long Neptune” missile has a range of 1,000 kilometres, Zelenskyy said.