Latest news with #SumyRegion
Arab News
2 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Evacuation order for 11 villages on Ukraine border with Russia
KYIV: Authorities in Ukraine's Sumy region bordering Russia on Saturday ordered the mandatory evacuation of 11 villages because of bombardments, as Kyiv feared a Russian offensive there. 'This decision takes into account the constant threat to civilian lives because of the bombardments of border communities,' Sumy's administration said. Russia's defense ministry on Saturday said its forces had taken another Sumy village, Vodolagy, known as Vodolahy in Ukrainian. Russia in recent weeks has claimed to have taken several villages in the northeastern region, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Moscow was massing more than 50,000 soldiers nearby in a sign of a possible offensive. A spokesman for Ukraine's border guard service, Andriy Demchenko, on Thursday said that Russia was poised to 'attempt an attack' on Sumy. He said the Russian troop build-up began when Moscow's forces fought Ukrainian soldiers who last year had entered the Russian side of the border, in the Kursk region. Russia has recently retaken control of virtually all of Kursk. Currently, Russia — which launched its all-out invasion in February 2022 — controls around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. The ongoing conflict has killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides. Washington has been leading diplomatic efforts to try to bring about a ceasefire, but Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of not wanting peace. The Kremlin has proposed further negotiations in Istanbul on Monday, after a May 16 round of talks that yielded little beyond a large prisoner-of-war exchange. Kyiv has not yet said whether it will attend the Istanbul meeting, and is demanding that Moscow drop its opposition to an immediate truce.
Reuters
4 days ago
- General
- Reuters
Ukrainian drones damage hospital, homes in Russia's Kursk, official says
May 30 (Reuters) - Ukrainian drones launched a night-time attack on Russia's western Kursk region, damaging a hospital and apartment buildings and injuring at least one person, the regional governor said early on Friday. Across the border in Ukraine's Sumy region, the regional governor reported fresh fighting in villages near the border where Russia has been seizing territory. He said various areas in his region were constantly changing hands. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he wants to create a buffer zone in Sumy, which was used to help launch Ukraine's incursion into Kursk last year. In the Kursk region, where Russia's military says Ukrainian forces who staged the incursion last August have been ejected, Governor Alexander Khinshtein said Ukrainian drones swarmed the main town, also called Kursk. "Drone fragments damaged the No. 1 city hospital in Kursk. Windows were smashed. Fortunately, no patients were injured," Khinshtein wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "Falling drone fragments have also damaged high-rise apartment buildings." Ukraine's military says its forces remain active in small areas of Kursk region. Authorities in Sumy region, under constant Russian attack for months, acknowledged this week that Russian forces were in control of at least four villages near the border. "Active battles continue in certain border areas, notably around the settlements of Khotyn and Yunakivka," Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook. "The situation on the line of contact is constantly changing. In some places, we hold the initiative, in others the enemy is proving to be active." Russia's Defence Ministry on Thursday said its forces had captured three more villages as it slowly advances through parts of eastern Ukraine. These were Stroivka in northeastern Kharkiv region, where Moscow has long been applying pressure, and Shevchenko Pershe and Hnativka near the town of Pokrovsk, the focal point of Russia's westward drive for months. Ukrainian military reports have made no acknowledgement of any of the three villages coming under Russian control. A statement on Thursday evening said Russian forces had launched 53 attacks over 24 hours near Pokrovsk.
RNZ News
6 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Russia seizes villages in northern Ukraine, drone attacks ease
By Tom Balmforth and Yuliia Dysa , Reuters A burnt-out room is in a house destroyed by a Russian drone attack in the Odesa district, Odesa region, Ukraine, on May 26 , 2025. Photo: Nina Liashonok / NurPhoto via AFP Russian forces have captured four villages in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, the local governor said, the latest battlefield setback for Kyiv as it seeks to hold territory and avoid handing Moscow the advantage in any peace talks. The Russian advances follow some of the biggest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine since the full-scale war began in early 2022, although the level dropped markedly overnight in Europe from Monday to Tuesday. Ukraine has also fired dozens of long-range drones into Russia in recent days, forcing some Moscow airports to close temporarily. Ukrainian forces used Sumy region as a launch pad to seize a chunk of Russia's neighbouring Kursk region last year before being largely driven out by April. The area has been pounded for months by Russian guided bomb attacks and other strikes. "The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called 'buffer zone'," Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook. He said the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka had been occupied, adding that residents had long been evacuated. Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday it had taken the nearby village of Bilovody, implying a further advance in the more than three-year war. Though Russia's offensive activity is concentrated in the eastern Donetsk region, Moscow's inroads into northeastern Ukraine show how it is stretching Kyiv's forces on multiple fronts. President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly warned that Russia is preparing new offensives against Sumy as well as the northeastern Kharkiv and southeastern Zaporizhzhia regions. "There is much evidence that they are preparing new offensive operations. Russia is counting on further war," he said on Monday, without elaborating. Zelensky has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet over peace talks, after representatives from the warring parties met in person earlier in May for the first time in three years. Russia launched an unprecedented drone barrage against Ukraine at the end of last week, firing more than 900 drones as well as missiles over three nights, prompting US President Donald Trump to label Putin as "crazy". Trump also said he was considering new sanctions against Russia to pressure Moscow to negotiate, but there has been no indication of action yet and he has shifted US policy towards Russia's position since returning to office. Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that the scale of Russia's overnight attacks dropped sharply from the preceding barrage. Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for the West to step up sanctions pressure on Russia to force it to accept the need for peace. During a trip to the Kursk region in March, Putin repeated his call for his military to consider establishing a "buffer zone" along Russia's border. Ukrainian officials have said for weeks that Russian troops are trying to make inroads into Sumy region, the main city of which lies less than 30km from the border. Russian forces, attacking in small groups on motorcycles and supported by drones, have been widening the area where they have been carrying out assaults, a spokesperson for Ukraine's border guard service said. Hryhorov, the regional governor, said Ukraine's troops were "keeping the situation under control, inflicting precise fire damage on the enemy". - Reuters
Reuters
7 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Ukrainian governor says Russian forces capture four villages in Sumy
May 26 (Reuters) - The governor of Ukraine's Sumy region on the Russian border said on Monday that Russian forces had captured four villages as part of an attempt to create a "buffer zone" on Ukrainian territory. Russia's military and Russian military bloggers have in recent days reported captured villages in Sumy, which has come under frequent Russian air strikes for months. Sumy Region Governor Oleh Hryhorov, writing on Facebook, listed four villages inside the border that he said were now held by Russian forces -- Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka. He said their residents had long been evacuated. "The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called 'buffer zone,'" he wrote. Ukrainian forces, he said, "are keeping the situation under control, inflicting precise fire damage on the enemy". Hryhorov said fighting was continuing around other villages in the area, including Volodymyrivka and Bilovodiv -- two settlements that Russia's Defence Ministry had earlier on Monday said were now held by Moscow's forces. Russian reports in recent days had said that Moscow's forces had taken control of villages in the region. Ukraine's State Emergency Services reported that one person was killed on Monday when Russian forces shelled an area of Sumy region west of the captured villages. Sumy region is opposite Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a large cross-border incursion last August. Moscow says Ukrainian troops have been ousted from Kursk, but Kyiv says its forces are still active there. Ukraine's popular military blog DeepState had said at the weekend that Russian forces had for the first time "been able to take up positions" along a line of border villages. A Russian missile strike on the region's main city, also called Sumy, killed 35 people on Palm Sunday last month. DeepState on Monday said Russian forces had launched attacks further east near Vovchansk in Kharkiv region, where it had launched an earlier incursion in May 2024.
Russia Today
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russian missile strike obliterates Ukrainian special forces camp – MOD (VIDEO)
Up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed in a Russian missile strike on a training camp for Kiev's special forces, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported. The camp was located during reconnaissance activities near the village of Shostka in Ukraine's Sumy Region, which borders Russia's Kursk Region, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. After receiving the coordinates, crews manning Russian Iskander-M operational-tactical missile systems carried out the strike against the facility, the ministry added. The attack killed up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen, including 20 instructors, while also destroying an ammunition depot and ten units of equipment, the statement read. Footage of the strike published by the ministry showed a major explosion inside the camp after one of the buildings was hit by a ballistic missile. In late April, Moscow announced the full liberation of the border areas of Kursk Region, which had been seized by Kiev's troops after they launched an incursion last August. According to Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the Russian military is currently working to set up a security zone in the border areas inside Sumy Region to prevent new attacks on Russian territory. Earlier this week, the Defense Ministry announced the capture of the village of Maryino, meaning Russian forces now control five settlements in Sumy Region.
