President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian troops have not been encircled by Russian forces in Kursk region, accusing Russian leader Vladimir Putin of “lying” about the situation on the ground.

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk to surrender, as diplomatic back-and-forth continues over a potential US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump urged Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin on Friday to spare Ukrainian troops that Russia is pushing out of its Kursk region, an appeal Putin said he would honor if they surrendered.

Talks in Moscow with a U.S. special envoy indicated that Russia was keen to keep negotiating with the United States over Ukraine.

A Russian service member places a flag oh the roof of a house in a part of the Kursk region, which was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia, in this image released.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, dressed in fatigues, visited a command post near the front in Kursk late Wednesday to cheer on his military’s ejection of Ukrainian forces from much of the territory they had been occupying in the Russian border region.

Russia says it will discuss the U.S. ceasefire proposal, but Vladimir Putin has signaled he seeks to expel the remnants of Ukrainian forces from Kursk.

Russia said on Thursday there was no doubt that its troops would soon complete the task of clearing out Ukrainian forces from Russia's Kursk region where they have held a pocket of territory for more than seven months.