Moscow, March 15 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday demanded that Ukrainian forces in Kursk surrender, hours after former US President Donald Trump said he had urged Putin to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers in the region, the New York Times reported.

"I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Putin responded in televised remarks, stating, "For this request to be effectively implemented, the leaders of Ukraine needed to order their military units to lay down their arms and surrender."

Both Putin and Trump claimed that Ukrainian forces were surrounded in Kursk, the region where Ukrainian troops had conducted a cross-border incursion last summer. However, Ukrain...