Latest news with #SBU
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Russia steps up offensives in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Sumy oblasts, Syrskyi says
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on May 31 that Russian forces have ramped up assault operations across key fronts in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Sumy oblasts. "(Russian troops) have notably increased activity in the Zaporizhzhia direction, where they are conducting active offensive actions," Syrskyi said following a strategic meeting assessing military operations in May. According to Syrskyi, Ukraine's Armed Forces are inflicting substantial losses on Russian troops, claiming over 34,000 Russian personnel were killed in May alone. Ukrainian artillery, aviation, and drone systems have been targeting enemy units "even before they reach our positions," he said. While Russia's main efforts remain concentrated on the Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman fronts in Donetsk Oblast, as well as in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy Oblast bordering Russia, Zaporizhzhia has seen an uptick in escalation, Syrskyi noted. He added that Ukrainian forces are reinforcing high-risk areas with reserves and intensifying firepower to repel attacks. In the Sumy Oblast, Russian forces have continued cross-border raids, shelling, and attempted sabotage missions. Ukrainian officials and military analysts warn of a possible new Russian offensive targeting the region. On May 29, State Border Guard Service spokesperson Andrii Demchenko said Russia had amassed "sufficient forces" in neighboring Kursk Oblast to potentially launch an incursion into Sumy. Syrskyi also highlighted Ukrainian cross-border operations, stating that in May, Ukraine struck 58 military targets deep inside Russian territory using long-range DeepStrike systems. These included defense industry facilities producing explosive materials and combat drones. Fighting continues on the Kursk front, where Russia has deployed elite units initially intended for operations in eastern Ukraine. On May 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly visited Kursk Oblast after Moscow declared on April 26 that it had completed a military operation to liberate the territory from Ukrainian incursions. The Ukrainian military said on April 26 some of the areas were still under their control. Read also: Ukrainian drones hit Russian cruise missile factory, SBU source says, in one of largest reported strikes of full-scale war We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
As 50,000 Russian troops amass, Ukraine's Sumy Oblast braces for potential large-scale offensive
Reports of an imminent Russian summer offensive and troop build ups on Ukraine's border are raising alarms in Sumy Oblast and fears that a large-scale assault could be on the horizon. Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 22 said he had ordered his military to create a "security buffer zone" along the border, and President Volodymyr Zelensky later claimed 50,000 of Moscow's troops were amassed "in the direction of Sumy." "These are trained combat units — airborne troops, marines, those that were specially transferred to displace our troops," a source in Ukraine's defense forces told the Kyiv Independent. Russian forces have already launched limited offensive operations and captured a small number of villages in the oblast, but soldiers and experts who spoke to the Kyiv Independent say the Kremlin's full intentions remain murky. Adding to the information fog, journalists' access to Sumy Oblast has been limited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) since the withdrawal from Kursk Oblast, and the Ukrainian military has shared little information on the front-line situation. When contacted by the Kyiv Independent, the Ukrainian military command of Kursk Oblast declined to comment, citing a "limited" ability to comment on the situation in the area. The warning of a renewed Russian push into Sumy Oblast comes two months after Ukrainian troops had to withdraw from Russia's adjacent Kursk Oblast after losing the logistics hub town of Sudzha. As soon as Ukraine's costly Kursk operation died out, Russian troops took the momentum and began raids into Sumy Oblast, depriving Kyiv of the opportunity to recover and rebuild the defenses there. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump continues to push for peace talks to end the war at all costs, with Ukraine and Russia planning to meet again in Istanbul on June 2 despite previous talks yielding minimal results. Uncertain of what might lay ahead, Ukrainian soldiers on the ground are bracing for tougher days. With many units exhausted after seven months of holding onto the Kursk salient under heavy Russian first-person view (FPV) drones and glide bombs, Kyiv's ability to hold the Sumy Oblast defense would depend on how it can reinforce the area despite a manpower shortage. Ukrainian local authorities admitted on May 26 that Russia has already captured four border villages in Sumy Oblast, including Novenke, Zhuravka, Veselivka, and Basivka. Russian troops were deploying the now-familiar tactics of using small assault groups, relying on "fast movement" with quad bikes, according to a deputy company commander with the 80th Air Assault Brigade, who goes by his callsign Third. "Only time will tell (how prepared Ukraine is)," he told the Kyiv Independent. Russia is conducting small assaults most actively in the areas of the Zhuravka and Basivka villages, but it has also widened "the attempt zone" using similar tactics, according to the State Border Guard Service spokesperson Andriy Demchenko. Russian forces have also begun pushing westward, near the villages of Veselivka and Volodymyrivka, but are reportedly suffering heavy losses. "Despite the fact that the enemy is suffering losses, we see that they openly do not give a damn about their soldiers," Demchenko told the Kyiv Independent. The scale at which Russia plans to advance into Sumy Oblast is unclear. So far, it has been a gradual push over the past few weeks, slowly capturing the border villages, according to Emil Kastehelmi, an analyst at the Finland-based Black Bird Group monitoring the war closely through open sources. He expected it to continue in the near future. Demchenko from the State Border Guard confirmed to the Kyiv Independent on May 20 that Russia was bringing more equipment into the border area. He said that attacks remained small incursions with squads of infantry using equipment no larger than quad bikes. It is unclear how much equipment Moscow amassed near Sumy Oblast. A civilian evacuation in Sumy Oblast — a region that has been regularly struck by Russian attacks since 2022 but intensified since the Kursk incursion — is ongoing. Nearly 56,000 residents were evacuated from Sumy Oblast under mandatory evacuation orders, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said on May 19. As of May 20, a representative for the Regional Military Administration said that three municipalities — Bilopillya, Vorozhba, and Nova Sloboda — had been asked to evacuate in the preceding month, but said authorities were not yet forcing residents to evacuate. "As for what's happening on the border itself, only soldiers can answer, but as of today, there's no threat to the oblast from there," they told the Kyiv Independent. While Russian forces will likely continue their "slow kind of offensive operation" in the northern border areas of Sumy Oblast, the eastern region of Donbas will likely remain Moscow's priority, according to Kastehelmi from the Black Bird Group. He said he would be "surprised" if Sumy Oblast became one of the main axes of any Russian summer offensive, given that it would further stretch Moscow's troops and it could likely achieve more on other fronts, such as the Donbas or the southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast. "It's likely that the Russians continue to attack in Sumy (Oblast) too, but I would assess it as a secondary direction where they can tie up Ukrainian resources," he said. Border areas are usually difficult to fortify due to raids from both sides and their proximity to Russia, which makes engineering equipment particularly vulnerable to potential attacks. Kastehelmi said that while Russia appears to have captured more villages than the Ukrainian local authorities had confirmed, the pace has been "really slow," and Moscow could simply be trying to prevent another potential Ukrainian incursion. "They may try to gain more ground there (in Sumy Oblast), maybe capture a few more villages, but it doesn't really change the general situation if the Russians control just a small sector," Kastehelmi said. The Deputy Company Commander from the 80th brigade, Third, said that the situation near the border was "more or less normal (and) controlled," and Sumy continued to "live its life to the fullest" despite the nightly drone attacks. But the high number of Russian troops deployed near Sumy Oblast still has Ukrainian soldiers on the ground on their toes. Illia, a serviceman from the 80th brigade, said in mid-May that he was not sure whether there would be an offensive into Sumy Oblast, but expected the assaults to continue. "There could be an offensive — there could not be as well," he told the Kyiv Independent. The source in Ukraine's defense forces told the Kyiv Independent that Russia's full intentions will depend on whether or not it manages to secure the so-called "security buffer zone" ordered by Putin. "It is clear to us that if they manage to do this, they will go further," they said. "Because Russia's overall goal has not changed — to occupy all of Ukraine." Read also: The Hungary-Ukraine spy scandal and Russia's possible role, explained We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
CTV News
a day ago
- General
- CTV News
Ukraine jails 21-years-old for allegedly guiding Russian strikes
FILE: A rescue worker stand debris of a house destroyed by a Russian strike in Markhalivka village, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) Ukraine on Friday jailed a 21-year-old man for 15 years on allegations he guided missile attacks for Russia, the latest collaboration conviction after more than three years of war. Moscow and Kyiv frequently accuse each other of recruiting civilians to coordinate attacks or carry out sabotage attacks, and of offering financial incentives and grooming them via social media. 'On the orders of a Russian special services officer, the traitor travelled around the city and its outskirts, secretly photographing the locations of Ukrainian troops,' the SBU security service wrote on Telegram. Many of those accused in Ukraine of carrying out the crimes are teenagers. According to the SBU, the Kyiv resident -- who was not identified by name -- was also preparing attacks in the Ukrainian capital on behalf of Russia and was caught red-handed while 'spying' near a military facility.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
The Hungary-Ukraine spy scandal and Russia's possible role, explained
Ukraine's rocky relationship with Hungary reached new lows this month with the uncovering of an alleged spy ring run from Budapest. Arrests, tit-for-tat expulsions, and a stream of accusations from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban soon followed in a diplomatic scandal with potentially massive ramifications for both countries. "This is probably the most-discussed Ukraine-related news (in Hungary) since the beginning of the full-scale invasion," Andras Racz, a senior fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) Center for Security and Defense, told the Kyiv Independent. "It's truly unprecedented," he added. Adding to the intrigue are the questions looming over the motives of the alleged spies, who were allegedly tasked with gathering sensitive military information that would be highly valuable to one country in particular — Russia. Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) on May 9 said it had uncovered a Hungarian espionage network in western Ukraine in what was the first case of its kind. SBU counterintelligence detained two alleged agents and identified their supervisor as a Hungarian military intelligence officer. According to the SBU, one of those detained is a 40-year-old former Ukrainian military officer who was recruited by Hungarian intelligence in 2021 and placed in standby mode. Kyiv has long accused Budapest of undermining Ukraine's sovereignty through political interference and pursuing an active policy of issuing Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians in the region. They claim he was "activated" in September 2024 when he began to conduct reconnaissance on the deployment of Ukrainian Armed Forces and the coordinates of S-300 air defense systems in the region. The spies' tasks also included identifying official vehicles belonging to Ukraine's army, and gathering data on the presence of aircraft and helicopters in Zakarpattia Oblast. They were also tasked with gauging local attitudes to various scenarios including the deployment of a Hungarian "peacekeeping contingent." At the center of the spy scandal is Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast, a region that has long been home to a large ethnic Hungarian minority that numbered 70,000-80,000 in 2024. Relations between Ukraine and Hungary have been historically strained because of issues relating to Zakarpattia Oblast — Kyiv has long accused Budapest of undermining Ukraine's sovereignty through political interference and pursuing an active policy of issuing Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians in the region. In turn, Budapest accuses Kyiv of discriminating against the Hungarian ethnic minority there, especially over Ukraine's language laws that require at least 70% of education above fifth grade to be conducted in Ukrainian. While Budapest has called this measure discriminatory toward the Hungarian minority, Kyiv denies it is discriminatory, saying it only aims to ensure that every Ukrainian citizen has sufficient knowledge of the country's official language. These issues have taken on extra significance since the start of Ukraine's accession talks which formally launched in June 2024. Hungary — which as an existing member of the EU holds veto power over accession decisions — has held up the process, citing discrimination against its Hungarian minority as a key obstacle. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukraine of collaborating with his political opposition, Tisza party leader Peter Magyar, to orchestrate a campaign to discredit him ahead of a planned referendum on Kyiv's EU membership. The day before the SBU announcement, Magyar released an audio recording of a 2023 conversation in which Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky talks of preparing the country's military for war — the opposite of what he and Orban had been saying in public, Magyar said. "Thus, the Hungarian opposition party took an active part in the special operation of the Ukrainian secret service," Orban said on May 13, adding: "Such a thing has never happened in our memory." Budapest also on May 9 expelled what it claimed were two "spies" working under diplomatic cover at Ukraine's embassy in Budapest, a move met with reciprocal expulsions by Kyiv. Another two Ukrainian "spies" were allegedly uncovered on May 20. After the scandal, Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Levente Magyar refused to come to Ukraine on May 12 for planned talks about the Hungarian national minority, Ukraine's Justice Ministry said on May 11. According to Racz, just the fact that Ukraine's SBU went public with the information is in itself significant. "Usually, espionage-related affairs are handled in a silent, non-public way. Even if there are expulsions, usually both sides are interested in minimizing tensions and the damage inflicted," Racz said. "Why would Budapest need the location and exact type of the air defense systems so much that they specifically instructed one of the agents to go there and take pictures of the installations? [...] I find no other plausible answer than Russia." And the timing of the announcement may also have been deliberate — according to Viktor Yahun, former deputy head of the SBU, the release of the information on May 9, Russia's Victory Day, was to "show once again how close the contacts and intentions of Hungary and Russia are." Complicating matters further is the fact that Orban is widely seen as the EU's most pro-Russian leader, and has repeatedly opposed military aid for Ukraine, arguing that Western support prolongs the war. He has maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, holding official meetings despite the full-scale invasion and amplified Kremlin narratives in Europe. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has visited Russia 13 times in the past three years, far more than any other EU diplomat, and even more than some of Russia's closest allies. Read also: Hungarian FM visits Moscow, eyes further economic cooperation with Russia Largely because of this, Hungary has shifted into a "gray zone" regarding intelligence sharing with EU countries, Vitalii Diachuk, the Institute for Central European Strategy (ICES) analyst, told the Kyiv Independent. The intelligence exchange process became more formalized, and Hungary ceased receiving analytical intelligence from NATO and EU countries, and stopped providing any of its own intelligence related to Russia, he added. Diachuk said there was nothing irregular about a country collecting general intelligence on its neighbors "especially when there is a war going on," but said a line would be crossed if that information "poses a threat to Ukraine's national security." The SBU's claim that Hungarian spies were collecting information about Ukraine's air defenses would most certainly cross this line, Racz said "If the SBU's claims are well-grounded… then it is very hard to imagine why this information would be relevant for Hungary," he added. "Why would Budapest need the location and exact type of the air defense systems so much that they specifically instructed one of the agents to go there and take pictures of the installations?" Given the highly unlikely scenario that Hungary is planning to attack Ukraine and thus needs to know where its air defenses are located, the remaining possible explanations are limited. "At present, unfortunately, I find no other plausible answer than Russia," Racz said. Yahun told the Kyiv Independent that it's within the realm of possibility that Orban was acting under the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Some of my colleagues have said that it is possible that during Orban's meeting with Putin (in July 2024), he could have persuaded Orban to exchange some intelligence information that is sensitive to Hungary and Russia," Yahun said. Yahun also said it's unlikely that Orban didn't know about the spying operation given his closeness to Major General Norbert Tajti, the head of Hungary's Military National Security Service (KNBSZ). Before his appointment, he served in Hungary's Joint Forces Command and as Orban's aide in the Prime Minister's Office. "(Tajti) had been a personal assistant to Orban for three years. This means that this person is completely devoted to Orban, and any actions on his part could not have been operated independently," Yahun said. Racz also said that Orban's explanation — that the entire thing was an orchestrated campaign between Ukraine and his political opposition — is unlikely as Orban would not have missed the opportunity to present solid evidence and "frame Peter Magyar's Tisza party as a Ukrainian agent." The Kyiv Independent contacted the SBU to ask how long the alleged Hungarian spying operation had been ongoing, and if it was broader than just the two individuals already detained. "All information about the investigation that is currently permitted to be made public has already been posted on the official resources of the (SBU)," it said in a written statement. Read also: Ukraine attacks elite Russian unit base nearly 7,000km away in Vladivostok, source claims We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Electronics plant in St. Petersburg on fire following explosions, local officials report
Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated. An Avangard electronics plant reportedly caught fire in the Russian city of St. Petersburg following a series of explosions, local Telegram channels and officials reported overnight on May 29. In purported videos posted on social media, a large fire was seen rising from the factory's roof in the Kalininsky district of the city. Preliminary reports indicate that the fire began around 1 a.m. local time. The fire is reportedly burning on the 5th floor of a 6-story building, the St. Petersburg Emergency Services Ministry said, adding that the fire covers approximately 100-square-meters. The plant reportedly specializes in the production of microelectronics and microcircuits. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Ukraine's military has not yet commented on the fire, and there were no official reports of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting the region ahead of the fire. The Kyiv Independent cannot independently verify reports made by Russian officials. Kyiv has previously target St. Petersburg through drone attacks on the region. As Russia continues to reject calls for a ceasefire and the war drags on, Ukraine has intensified drone attacks on Russian territory. In particular, drone attacks in Russia have forced airport closures for several nights in a row. A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told the Kyiv Independent on May 28 that Ukrainian long-range drones hit the Raduga enterprise in the town of Dubna in Moscow Oblast, which produces cruise missiles. Read also: Ukrainian drones hit Russian cruise missile factory, SBU source says, in one of largest reported strikes of full-scale war We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
