Putin claims Russian troops have surrounded 2 Ukrainian cities but Ukraine says that’s not true
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russian troops have surrounded Ukrainian forces in two key eastern cities of Ukraine and offered a deal for their surrender. Ukrainian military officials vehemently denied the claim.
Speaking at a meeting with wounded soldiers at a military hospital in Moscow, Putin suggested that the Russian military was ready to open safe corridors to Ukrainian and Western journalists “to allow them to see with their own eyes what is happening.”
He claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were surrounded PokrovskIn Kupiansk, an important stronghold of Ukraine in the eastern Donetsk region and an important railway junction in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Russia recently pushing its significant advantage almost four years later, shipments of troops and weapons to key points along the nearly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line invaded its neighbor.
But while Ukrainian armed forces said claims that Kupiansk was surrounded were “fabricated and fantasy,” Hryhorii Shapoval, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces, told The Associated Press that the situation in Pokrovsk was “difficult but under control.”
The Ukrainian Army’s 7th Rapid Response Corps, which defended Pokrovsk, said Russia had deployed about 11,000 troops in an attempt to encircle the city. A social media post confirmed that some Russian troops managed to infiltrate Pokrovsk.
It turns out that Russian officials’ past claims that Ukraine’s strongholds were captured were not true. It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
Putin’s comments coincided with his diplomatic efforts to persuade the United States. quest for peace agreement that supporting Ukraine to end the war is pointless because Ukraine cannot survive against Russia’s military superiority. He also emphasized that Russia said it was. improve nuclear capacity like him refuses to move from war aims.
Putin stated on Wednesday that Russia is open to an agreement on the surrender of Ukrainian soldiers in the two cities. A media visit to the regions would allow reporters to see “the conditions for the besieged Ukrainian troops to be there and for Ukraine’s political leadership to be able to make decisions regarding the fate of its citizens,” he said.
Ukrainian officials and Russian war bloggers said small groups of Russian soldiers engaged in house-to-house fighting in both Kupiansk and Pokrovsk, while artillery and drones targeted roads. The Ukrainian military is increasingly relying on drones to supply troops.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, said late Tuesday that Russian forces were advancing in the Pokrovsk area but “almost certainly do not currently control any positions within the city of Pokrovsk.”
The statement added that the advances “are unlikely to cause the immediate collapse of the Ukrainian pocket in the Pokrovsk direction.”
Asked about the situation in Kupiansk, Ukrainian Joint Forces Task Force spokesman Viktor Trehubov said Putin’s claim did not coincide with the reality on the ground. “Simply put, there is no siege,” Trehubov told the AP.
Russian forces have been trying for more than a year to take Pokrovsk, which Ukraine stopped using as a logistics center in the region due to increasing pressure from Russia at the end of last year. The city, where around 60,000 people lived before the war, is largely in ruins.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continued long-range drone and missile attacks on Russia’s rear regions, aiming to disrupt logistics by hitting oil refineries and production facilities.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense shot down 100 Ukrainian drones in five regions overnight, and 13 airports, including three in the Moscow region, briefly suspended flights due to the attack.
Meanwhile, Russia continued its attack on Ukraine’s power grid and civilian infrastructure in at least six regions. Authorities said at least 13 people were injured, including a 9-year-old child.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 126 attack and decoy drones overnight.
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