The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denies the statements about the encirclement of Ukrainian units in Russia’s Kursk Oblast. In particular, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump have previously spoken about this.

The repositioning could be a prelude to a complete Ukrainian withdrawal from Kursk back to the relative safety of northern Ukraine. Shrugging off at least one raid by a Ukrainian

President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin both claimed that Ukrainian forces were surrounded. Ukraine’s top military commander vowed to “hold the line.”