Zelensky denies troops surrounded in Kursk as Russia retakes villages

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky denied on March 15 his troops were encircled in Russia’s Kursk region, where Moscow has regained swathes of land this week, as Russia said it took back two more villages in the border region. US leader Donald Trump had a day earlier asked Russia’s Vladimir Putin on social media to spare the lives of Ukrainian troops that he said were “completely surrounded” by the Russian army.