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

By Steve Holland, Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump urged Russia's Vladimir Putin on Friday to spare Ukrainian troops being pushed back out of Russia's Kursk region and said there was a "very good chance" the war could end.

"Reports about the enemy's alleged 'encirclement' of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region are not true and are created by the Russians for political goals and pressure on Ukraine a

President Donald Trump appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to spare the lives of thousands of Ukrainian troops he said were in a “very bad and vulnerable position” and avoid what he said would be a massacre unlike anything since World War II.