Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russian troops have surrounded Ukrainian forces in two key eastern cities of Ukraine and offered to negotiate a deal for their surrender. However, the Ukrainian military officials have vigorously denied the claim.
It has been learnt that Putin, while speaking at a meeting with wounded soldiers at a Moscow military hospital, suggested that the Russian military was ready to open safe corridors for Ukrainian and Western journalists to “let them see with their own eyes what’s going on".
The Russian President claimed Ukrainian troops are encircled in Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region, and in Kupiansk, an important rail junction in the northeastern Kharkiv region, according to Associated Press.
While Russia is pushing its significant advantage in troops and weapons at key points along the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, the Ukrainian armed forces said claims of Kupiansk being surrounded are “fabrications and fantasies".
The spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces, Hryhorii Shapoval, said that the situation in Pokrovsk is “hard but under control".
