FRIDAY March 14, 2025 |TheNewsDESK
Russia will spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers in its western Kursk region if Kyiv tells them to surrender, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump urged him to avoid a “horrible massacre” there.
Ukraine denied its men were encircled, describing that as a Russian fabrication, but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the situation “very difficult”, REUTERS reports.
Trump, in a social media post, said he had asked the Russian president to spare the lives of thousands of Ukrainians who he said were “completely surrounded” and vulnerable.
“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,” he said.
Putin, addressing his Security Council, said he had read Trump’s appeal. While accusing Ukrainian troops of carrying out crimes against civilians that he said amounted to “terrorism” – something Kyiv denies – Putin said he understood the call by Trump to take humanitarian considerations into account.
“In this regard, I would like to emphasize that if (the Ukrainian troops) lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and decent treatment in accordance with international law and the laws of the Russian Federation,” Putin said.
“To effectively implement the appeal of the U.S. president, a corresponding order from the military-political leadership of Ukraine is needed for its military units to lay down their arms and surrender.”
The deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, former President Dmitry Medvedev, posted on social media that the flipside for Kyiv was that “if they refuse to lay down their arms, they will all be methodically and mercilessly destroyed”.
Kursk became a key theatre of the war last August when Ukraine, 2-1/2 years after Putin’s full-scale invasion, turned the tables on Moscow by grabbing a piece of Russia’s own territory.
After President Trump appeal, Putin Says He Will Spare Ukrainians In Kursk If They Surrender
