Thousands of troops storm into Ukraine in fresh attack, Russia claims as Putin insists he’s ready for talks with Zelesnkyy
19 February 2025, 15:45
Thousands of Russian soldiers have barrelled over the Kursk border into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has claimed, despite insisting he is willing to explore options to ending the war.
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Putin told reporters on Wednesday: “The latest information that was reported to me literally an hour ago is that tonight, fighters from the 810th brigade crossed the border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine and entered enemy territory.
“And our troops are advancing along the entire line of combat contact.”
The Russian region of Kursk was invaded by Ukraine last August. Ukrainian President Volodymry Zelenskyy’s men took around 1,100sq km of land, with Kyiv claiming it has kept hold of around half of that territory.
Russia’s alleged advance came just hours after Moscow stressed Putin’s willingness to enter peace talks with Zelenskyy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmirty Peskov told reporters on Tuesday the Russian leader has “repeatedly said he is ready to speak about peace” but stressed that Moscow's “wider security issues” need to be addressed first.
Putin is also ready to meet US President Donald Trump, Peskov added.
He did not give a date for a potential meeting, stressing it is impossible to give any sense of the talks as they had only just begun.
The comments came following US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, which Zelenskyy, Britain and Europe were excluded from.
Trump said SUGGESTED the meeting that Ukraine is responsible for starting the country’s war with Russia, adding that the conflict could have been "settled very easily" as he hit out at Kyiv's negotiation skills.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Zelenskyy accused Trump of being "trapped in a disinformation bubble" after he accused the Ukrainian leader of starting the war.
He said the US President is "seeing a lot of disinformation" from Russia, accusing Trump of 'helping' Putin 'to come out of isolation' by working with him.
Zelenskyy told reporters: "With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader, he is living in this disinformation space."
The Ukrainian leader added: "Look, we all want a victory, and we want Trump to win, and we want Ukraine to win, all of us to succeed,"But I am protecting Ukraine. I can't sell it away. I can't sell our state."
