Vladimir Putin calls on Ukraine army to surrender in Kursk region in response to Trump's appeal

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

Ukraine must order its forces to surrender to implement US President Donald Trump's call to "spare" the Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, said President Vladimir Putin, as reported by news agency TASS.

"We are sympathetic to President Trump's call," Putin said in televised remarks. "If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment," Putin added, calling on Ukraine's leaders to issue an order to their troops to surrender.

"In order to effectively implement the call of the US president, an appropriate order is needed from the military and political leadership of Ukraine to its military units to lay down their weapons and surrender," Vladimir Putin said.

The deputy chairman of Russia's security council, former President Dmitry Medvedev, posted on social media that the flipside for Kyiv was that "if they refuse to lay down their arms, they will all be methodically and mercilessly destroyed".

Earlier, Donald Trump, in a social media post, said he had asked the Russian president to spare the lives of thousands of Ukrainians who he said were "completely surrounded" and vulnerable.

"I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II," he said.

Ukraine denied Trump's and Putin's claims and said it was holding on to territory there.

"There is no threat of our units being encircled," the General Staff wrote in a statement on social media.

But Zelensky admitted his troops were under intense Russian pressure.

"The situation in the Kursk region is obviously very difficult," Zelensky told reporters -- including AFP journalists -- in Kyiv.

He said, however, that Ukraine's offensive there had forced Russia to pull its troops from other embattled areas of the front, easing pressure on Ukrainian troops fighting to keep control of the eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

"I think the situation in the Pokrovsk sector is now stable, and it will be very difficult to find an opportunity to occupy Pokrovsk again," Zelensky said.

*With Agency Inputs