Russia said on Friday that its forces continue to create a “safety zone” in the border areas of the Sumy region of Ukraine after expelling the Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region in western Russia.
Ukraine states that its forces still maintain a position in Kursk, where they performed a raid in August last year to try to distract the Russian forces and be able to bargain in future peace negotiations.
Still, the government stressed that it is concerned about a possible Russian advance in Sumy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that his country should seek to create a security zone in the Sumy region to protect himself
“Units of the North Forces Group have completed the defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces formations in the Kursk region,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“The creation of a” security range “in the border areas of the Sumy region of Ukraine continues,” he added.
Two Majors, a Russian war blogger with more than 1.2 million subscribers from Zhuravka to Bilovody, two villages shortly after the border in Sumy.
“Our skydivers, having broken the stubborn resistance of the enemy, advanced in the Loknya area and in the border forest belts” in the Sumy region, the blogger wrote.
A commander of a Russian aerotransported robbery brigade pointed out to the state news agency Tass that the Ukrainian troops fighting in Sumy were demoralized.
“We disorganize their command system,” the commander claimed, according to the quote.
Reuters could not check the information.
Russian Advance in Sumy
Sumy governor Oleh Hryhoorov stressed on Tuesday that Russia was very successful in creating a security zone, but acknowledged that four border villages in the region-including Zhuravka-were in a “gray zone” due to Russian attacks.
Deep State, an open source data project, indicated that about 82 km² from the Sumy region are in a contested area.
Separately, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that its troops captured four villages in the regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine last week.
