Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited a posting of commands at Kursk, where his army chief told him that Moscow forces are on the verge of recovering the border region held by Ukraine.
Putin’s visit came just hours after Ukraine agreed on the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its fight with Russia.
He ordered the army to expel Ukrainian forces outside the region “in the shortest possible time” and to consider the creation of a buffer area along the border, according to the footage shown on state television on Wednesday.
While Ukraine’s defense has collapsed in recent days, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of Russia, told Putin that their army had seized 400 soldiers and received 86 percent of the territory captured by this in a surprise attack last summer.
Putin said prisoners should be treated “humanly”, but warned that every remaining Ukrainian fighter would be considered “terrorists”.
Pictures of Putin’s arrival at the post of troop group command in the Kursk region.
He appeared in military uniform. Pic.twitter.com/bajwcudvk6
– lonely wolf (@mapodogan) March 12 2025
Following the meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Ukrainian and American officials supported a month interruption of hostilities throughout Ukraine’s first line.
In return, the US resumed military aid and the division of intelligence with KYIV that had been suspended after last month’s erection in the Oval Office between Donald Trump and Volodymyr zelenskyy.
At a conference Wednesday, the Ukrainian President described the meeting with US officials in Jeddah as “constructive”. He said the 30-day ceasefire was a SH.BA proposal that he accepted after he was in contact with his team.
“I have repeatedly said that none of us trust the Russians, but we will not play with narratives claiming that we do not want this war to end,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he was “serious” for the planned ceasefire.
Ukraine’s president said support from other countries would be necessary to monitor the ceasefire along the first line of 1,000 km.
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In February, Zelenskyy insisted that Russian territories held by Ukrainian forces in Kursk can be used as a bargain chip in peace negotiations.
But while Ukraine struggles to defend the captured region, Moscow’s state media shared footage on Wednesday that they told Russian soldiers in the center of Sudzhha, the main municipality where Ukraine had created a command center.
“I don’t think they will be ready to stop in Sudzha,” said Solomiia Bobrovska, a Ukrainian opposition MP and a member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee.
Oleksandr Sysky, Commander -in -Chief of Kyiv, on Wednesday said that the Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from the parts of Kursk. “My priority was and remains to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. For this, our forces can maneuver in more favorable lines,” he wrote in the telegram.
The fighting continued at Kursk, including the suburbs of Sudzha, Sysky added.
For Ukraine, a ceasefire negotiating just like Ukraine forces suffer military obstacles has painful echoes. In February 2015, Moscow press this to sign a ceasefire just as its troops were surrounding the eastern city of Ukraine in Debalts. But Russia constantly violated that ceasefire agreement.
“Putin will try to fill Trump’s ears with nothing, and Trump will have to decide what he does next,” said Mykhailo Samus, a Ukrainian military analyst. He added that the US president is likely to offer Moscow to remove Western sanctions in exchange for the ceasefire.
Ukrainian officials and European allies on Wednesday welcomed the restoration of US military aid and the allocation of intelligence that KyIw’s forces use to hit the objectives beyond the first line.
“This is an important signal for the whole world that the support for Ukraine is intact,” wrote Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s high aide and the Ukrainian delegation leader in Jeddah, in the telegram.
Poland Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski on Wednesday said that the US transit of military supplies in Ukraine through Poland was “returned to previous levels”, just as the Starlink Satellite Communication System owned by Trump Musk Musk. Poland is paying for part of this service for Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said “Russia now has to agree with a ceasefire and an end to the fighting.”
Starmer said he will rebuild European leaders on Saturday “to discuss the next steps” plan for a “security force” set in Ukraine to prevent Russia from attacking again.
Trump on Wednesday said he could impose “devastating” sanctions if Russia disagrees with ceasefire.
“I can do the financial things that would be too bad for Russia. I don’t want to do it because I want to get peace,” he said.
Kremlin said he wanted to hear directly from the US before commenting on the truce proposal. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said that Moscow expected the US to “inform us about the details of the talks and the agreements that were reached.”
A call between Putin and Trump could be organized “very soon,” Peskov said, but added that the White House should not look for one.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday “the president’s team continues to engage” in the ceasefire plan.
Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service Wednesday said its director Sergei Naryshin had spoken by phone with his US counterpart, CIA chief John Ratcliffe, with two agencies agreed to continue regular contact.
Even while Russian forces continued to move forward to Kursk, the advances in the rest of the front line seemed to stumble. Ukrainian troops arrived in recent days to hold the Russian attacks around the Pokrovsk logistics center, and began counter-suling towards the center of Turtsk, an industrial city Russian forces achieved in August.
At the front of Pokrovsk, a drone operator reacted to news of a suggestion suggested in a Ukrainian word: “Pobachymo ” – “We’ll see.”
Additional reporting by Raphael Minder in Warsaw, Henry Foy in Brussels and Felicia Schwartz in Washington; Cartography by Steven Bernard
