Russia said today that it had captured another village in Ukraine’s Sumy region, where Kiev fears Russia is preparing a major offensive, and ordered an evacuation.
Despite intensified diplomatic contacts to reach a ceasefire, fierce fighting continues in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced today that Russian forces had captured the village of Vodolagi, in northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy region, near the Russian border, and that they had also captured the village of Novopil in the eastern Donetsk region.
The main part of the fighting is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, but Kiev fears that Russia will launch an offensive in the north, in the Sumy region.
A major attack would pose a huge challenge for the Ukrainian army, which is short of both men and weapons and is already in a difficult position on the front.
The regional administration in Sumy announced today the mandatory evacuation of 11 villages near the border with Russia. It did not say whether this was due to fear of an attack, but rather due to constant bombing and artillery fire.
A total of 213 locations in the region are under evacuation orders, according to regional authorities.
Russia said this week that it had seized several villages near the border in the Sumy region where it is suspected of trying to form a buffer zone to prevent Ukrainians from entering its territory, as it did in Kursk last summer.
This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow was massing more than 50,000 troops for a possible offensive in the area.
Ukraine’s Border Guard Service spokesman Andriy Demchenko said on Thursday that Russia had amassed enough forces near Sumy for an “attempted attack.” He said the buildup began when Russian forces fought Ukrainian soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region, across from Sumy.
The Ukrainian military launched a surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, putting the Kremlin in an awkward position. But Ukraine has now lost virtually all of the territory it captured, and Russia claims to have completely expelled the Ukrainians from the Kursk region.
Russia currently holds about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.
