Kremlin says around 5,000 Ukrainian troops are trapped in the Kharkiv region
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Service members of an air-defence unit of the 115th Separate Mechanized Brigade wait inside a van during their combat shift near the frontline town of Kupiansk, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
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MOSCOW - The Kremlin said on Friday that around 5,000 Ukrainian troops were trapped on the eastern bank of the River Oskil, in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region.
Reuters could not independently verify the assertion by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and there was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian military.
Russia said late on Thursday that it had taken control of Kupiansk, a large town that straddles the Oskil, but Ukraine denied it had fallen.
Peskov said Russia's battlefield progress should convince Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to negotiate now rather than later.
He also highlighted comments on Thursday that President Vladimir Putin made when told by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia's general staff, that Ukraine's political leadership had not given Ukrainian troops any instructions on surrendering despite them being trapped.
Putin accused Kyiv of not thinking about the fate of its own soldiers and said that a major corruption scandal in Ukraine showed the country was no longer run by a political leadership but by an "organised crime syndicate". REUTERS
