Reuters: Trump ignores intelligence that says Ukrainian troops not surrounded in Kursk region
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- Mariia Khamitsevych
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16:47, 20 March, 2025
Donald Trump, photo: GETTY IMAGESUS intelligence has passed on to the White House an assessment of the situation in the Kursk region, according to which Ukrainian troops were not surrounded. However, US President Donald Trump continues to claim otherwise.
According to Reuters, citing knowledgeable sources, the White House received the relevant intelligence, including from the CIA, last week.
Nevertheless, on 19 March, Donald Trump said in an interview with FoxNews that 2,500 Ukrainian troops were surrounded in the Kursk region. Earlier, on 13 March, he even appealed to Vladimir Putin to «pardon them».
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denied Donald Trump's words, stressing that Ukrainian units had regrouped, moving to more favourable defensive positions and continued to perform combat missions.
In addition, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War found no geolocation evidence of the encirclement of Ukrainian forces in the area. They also noted that Vladimir Putin used Donald Trump's statement to divert attention from the Kremlin's refusal to accept the US-Ukraine ceasefire proposal.
As a reminder, on 14 March, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Kursk operation had fulfilled its task of pulling back Russian troops from the Pokrovske, Kharkiv and Sumy directions.