Ukrainian soldiers have lost the ground in the Kursk region of Russia, but despite allegations by both President Vladimir Putin and President Trump, they are not surrounded and shrouded in Moscow's mercy.
The CIA and other Intel agencies believe Kiev's troops are not “besieged” by Russia, but officials said they have lost almost entire footing in the region in recent weeks.
The new information reflects the Post's report earlier this month that Kiev had prepared troops to withdraw from Kursk before the Kremlin forces backed by North Korean draft.
The assessment was also shared with the White House, contradicting Trump's repeated claims that Ukrainian troops are surrounded by the Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Putin touted the overwhelming success of surprise Moscow's major Kursk settlement last week, undermining the surprising Ukraine invasion that wiped out hundreds of square miles of Russian land last summer.
The Russian Strongman called on Kiev soldiers to “subjugate or die.”
Experts then denounced the claim as grand misinformation to help Moscow gain the advantage in peace negotiations with the United States.
With Russia appears to have made no concessions to peace talks, Putin hopes that “sparing” of soldiers' lives will be seen as a compromise and will increase his leverage, Intelligence Report officials concluded.
Gambit appeared to be working a day after Putin made the fake ultimate, but Trump went to social media to reiterate the Russian president's claim that Ukrainians were “completely surrounded.”
The Kursk commander, whose post was embedded, confirmed that his brigade had withdrawn from Russian territory completely on the same day Trump had rumoured.
The War Institute, a Washington-based conflict monitor, concluded that “did not observe any evidence of earth immersion indicating that Russian forces were sieging a significant number of Ukrainian troops along the Kursk Oblast or the Ukrainian frontline.”
The White House, CIA and the Director of National Intelligence all declined to comment.
Ukraine has been occupying the belt of the Kursk region since last August, carrying a bold counter invasion in hopes of splitting Russian attention from the forefront.
With nearly 500 square miles of miles being earned, the operation is considered a major success, with Kursk being set up as leverage to free up the land that Russia has taken from Ukraine.
But that leverage is now dropping to just 20-30 square miles, experts said.
Despite the losses, Zelensky last week welcomed Operation Kursk as a comprehensive success, saying that Moscow scrambled to seize land, helping to save important places elsewhere on the frontline.
With post wire
