After clinging for more than seven months to a gradually shrinking area, Ukraine has seen its position worsen sharply in the past week.

Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna,

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine gave no indication Friday that his country’s soldiers would withdraw from Kursk, let alone surrender.

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.

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.

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