Ukraine rejects claim Russian forces enter key central region
Kyiv's armed forces rejected as "disinformation" Russia's claim that its ground troops have crossed into Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time, even as prospects for a U.S.-brokered ceasefire remain elusive.
Separately, Ukraine and Russia continued testy exchanges over the details of a planned large prisoner swap agreed to during last week's talks in Turkey. The exchange is likely to move ahead in the coming days.
Russia's defense ministry said Sunday that units of its 90th tank regiment had crossed the western administrative border of Donetsk into neighboring Dnipropetrovsk, in what would be a symbolic milestone in their years-long offensive.
In response, Ukraine's southern defense forces said its troops were "holding their section of the front" while involved in a situation that, while "tense," is still contained within the Donetsk region.
At issue is the potential advance by Moscow's land forces into one of Ukraine's most populous and industrialized areas.
The value of reaching the edge of the region appears mostly symbolic, as Kremlin troops are still more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) away from the regional capital of Dnipro, which is also protected by the river of the same name and its system of estuaries.
Yet creeping farther west could fuel the aggressive posture taken by President Vladimir Putin, who's sticking with maximalist goals in Ukraine while resisting U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to bring him to the negotiating table.
Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, behind Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, with a pre-war population of about 1 million people. Before the war's start, Dnipropetrovsk was Ukraine's second most populated region after Donetsk, and is the second-largest territory by land mass after the Odesa region. It's home to a major steel industry, coal mining and machine building and is an important logistics hub for the army.
A few days ago, Kremlin forces were estimated to be about 2 kilometers from the provincial border. The advance takes place at a time Russia has recently seized small amounts of territory in Ukraine's far northeast. It also brings the war onto the soil of two provinces which so far haven't been officially earmarked for annexation by Putin.
The Russian leader has demanded that Kyiv surrender all of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces, which Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but doesn't fully control. That's in addition to Crimea, which Kremlin forces illegally annexed in 2014.
Russia's slow-going ground war has picked up speed again. Kremlin units in recent days have been advancing closer to the regional capital of Sumy in Ukraine's northeast. Parts of the Sumy region were occupied during Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, and liberated in a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that Russia's renewed focus on the Sumy region was "not a surprise" for the Ukrainian army, which is doing its best to repel the advance. Sumy's regional governor said Sunday there was no need for an emergency evacuation of residents, according to the public broadcaster Suspilne.
Ukraine's coordination headquarters for the treatment of POWs on Sunday said "everything is moving according to plan" to move ahead with a major prisoner swap agreed on June 2, which will also include the return of bodies of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers held in Russia. Russia on Saturday suggested Ukraine was to blame for delays in starting the exchange.
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