Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command post in Kursk in which his army chief informed him that the armed forces are about to recapture the Ukrainian border region.
Putin’s visit came just a few hours after the Ukraine agreed to the US proposal for A 30-day armistice in his war with Russia.
He ordered the army to pass the armed forces of Ukraine from the region “possible in the shortest possible time” and to consider a buffer zone along the border, according to the film material that was shown on state television on Wednesday.
When the defense of Ukraine has collapsed in the past few days, Valery Gerasimov, head of the General Staff Russia, said Putin that her country conquered 400 soldiers and that 86 percent of the attack that was surprising by Kyiv last summer has recaptured.
Putin said prisoners should be treated “humanly”, but warned that remaining Ukrainian fighters would be seen as “terrorists”.
Film material from Putin’s arrival at the command post of the troop group in the Kursk region.
He appeared in military uniform. pic.twitter.com/bajwcudvk6
– Lonely wolf (@mapodogan) March 12, 2025
After met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the Ukrainian and US officials supported a one-month hiring of hostilities on the entire Ukrainian front.
In return, the United States resumed military help and secret services with Kyiv, which had been suspended after the last month in the Oval Office between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In a briefing on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president described the meeting with US officials in Jeddah as “constructive”. He said that the 30-day ceasefire was a US proposal that he agreed with after contact with his team.
“I repeatedly said that none of us trust the Russians, but we won’t play with stories that say that we don’t want this war to end,” said Zelenskyy, adding that he was “serious” about the planned ceasefire.
The Ukrainian president said that support from other countries was necessary to monitor the ceasefire along the 1,000 km long front.
In February, Zelenskyy insisted that the Russian areas of the Ukrainian armed forces in Kursk could be used as a trial chip in peace negotiations.
But when Ukraine is fighting to defend the caught region, the state media of Moscow announced the film material on Wednesday that Russian soldiers had set up a command center in the center of Sudzha, the main community of Ukraine.
“I don’t think they are ready to stop in Sudzha,” said Solomiia Bobrovska, a Ukrainian opposition MP and member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee.
Oleksandr Syrsky, Kyiv’s commander -in -chief, said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian armed forces had withdrawn from parts of Kursk. “My priority was and remains to save the life of the Ukrainian soldiers. For this, our armed forces can maneuver more advantageous lines, ”he wrote on telegram.
The fights continued in Kursk, including Sudzha’s suburbs, added Syrky.
For UkraineA ceasefire that is negotiated as well as the Ukrainian armed forces suffer military setbacks, has painful echoes. In February 2015, Moscow Kyiv urged to sign a ceasefire as his troops surrounded the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve.
Russia repeatedly violates this ceasefire agreement – a precedent that Zelenskyy achieved in the White House, and caused Trump to conclude that the Ukrainian leader was not interested in ending the conflict.
“Putin will try to fill Trump’s ears with nothing, and Trump has to decide what he’s doing next,” said Mykhailo Samus, a Ukrainian military analyst. He added that the US President Moscow should probably offer the abolition of Western sanctions in return for an armistice.
Karoline Leavitt, the press spokesman for the White House, said on Wednesday, Mike Waltz, National Security Adviser, to his Russian counterpart. “The president’s team is still engaged,” she added.
Ukrainian officials and European allies welcomed the restoration of US military aid And the share of intelligence with which Kyiv’s forces hit goals beyond the front.
“This is an important signal for the whole world that the support of Ukraine is intact,” wrote Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s top adjutant and leader of the Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah.
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said on Wednesday that the US transit of military care in Ukraine via Poland “returned to previous levels”, as well as the Starlink satellite communication system from the Trump consultant Elon Musk. Poland pays for part of this service for Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starrer congratulated Trump and Zelenskyy on their “remarkable breakthrough” and added: “Russia must now agree to an armistice and an end to the fights.”
Starrer said he would restore the European leaders on Saturday to discuss “the next steps in the plan for an” insurance group “that was used in Ukraine to prevent Russia from attacking again.
The Kremlin said he wanted to hear directly from the USA before commenting on the Ceasefire proposal. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia expected the United States “inform us about the details of the discussions and the agreements made”.
A call between Putin and Trump could be organized “very quickly”, said Peskov, but added that the White House did not have to request anyone yet.
The Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service said on Wednesday that his director Sergei Naryshkin spoke to his American counterpart, CIA boss John Ratcliffe. The two agencies agreed to maintain contact regularly.
Even when the Russian armed forces in the Kursk region continued to press, progress seemed to be in the rest of the front lines. In the past few days, the Ukrainian troops managed to hold Russian attacks on the logistical center of Pokrovsk, and started daring counterattacks in the direction of the center of Toretsk, an industrial city Russian armed forces.
On the Pokrovsk front, a drone operator reacted to the news of the proposed ceasefire with 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
