Ukraine's Sumy region on edge as Russian advance closes in
STETS'KIVKA: Despite the driving rain, a few elderly residents wander into the streets of Stetskivka in northeast Ukraine to catch a yellow bus to go shopping in nearby Sumy, the regional capital.
They are worried about the Russian drones that have been striking the area with increasing regularity, more than three years into Moscow's invasion.
'I'm afraid. Nobody knows what could happen to the bus we take,' Galyna Golovko, 69, told AFP at the small shop she runs near the bus stop.
Golovko said she never goes out in the morning or evening when Russian drones criss-cross the sky.
'It's scary how many drones fly in the morning.... In the morning and in the evening it's just hell,' she said.
The border with the neighboring Russian region of Kursk is just 17 kilometers (11 miles) away.
The Sumy region was the starting point for a Ukrainian incursion into Kursk last year.
Ukraine held swathes of the territory for eight months, until a spring offensive by Russian forces supported by North Korean troops pushed them back.
Moscow has since advanced toward the city of Sumy, taking several villages along the way and forcing mandatory evacuations of civilian residents.
At the Stetskivka bus stop, an elderly woman said she had packed up in case Russian troops arrive in town, where Ukrainian soldiers have replaced a pre-war population of 5,500 people.
The town is just 10 kilometers from the front line, and residents said there is heavy fighting nearby.
Beyond Stetskivka, 'everything has been destroyed, there is not a single village,' Golovko said.
On her shop counter, there was a plastic box with a few banknotes — donations for a local family that lost its home, destroyed by a Russian glide bomb.
Ten kilometers to the south lies Sumy, a city that had 255,000 inhabitants before the war.
So far, restaurants are crowded and there seems little concern about the Russian advance.
But buildings in the city bear the scars of Russian bombardments.
And, when the sounds of car horns go down in the evenings, explosions can be heard in the distance.
The streets are lined with concrete bunkers against the increasingly frequent strikes from Russia, which has said it wants to set up a 'buffer zone' to prevent future Ukrainian incursions.
'The enemy is trying to advance,' said Anvar, commander of the drone battalion of the 225th regiment, which is leading the defense of the region.
'We are pushing them back. Sometimes we advance, sometimes they do,' he told AFP in an apartment that serves as a base for his unit.
'We still have troops in the Kursk region. Nobody has tried to drive them out,' he said, calling the conflict in the region a 'war of positions.'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said the Russian offensive in Sumy had been stopped, just a day after Russian forces said they had captured another village in the region.
Sitting next to Anvar, one of his men soldered microprocessors in silence, except for electronic clicking that made the room feel like a laboratory.
Surrounded by 3D printers and piles of batteries, the members of the brigade are busy transforming Chinese drones into flying weapons.
'It is now a drone war,' the commander said.
Anvar said that Russia was continually sending 'cannon fodder' along this part of the front to try and overwhelm Ukrainian troops.
'I know people who have gone mad because of the number of people they manage to kill in a day.'
Russian soldiers 'continue marching calmly' amid the bodies of their fallen comrades, he said.
In Stetskivka, Golovko voiced confidence that Ukrainian soldiers would hold the line and said she was 'not going anywhere.'
'I will stay at home,' she said tearfully, beating the counter with her fist.
'I have traveled to Russia. We have friends there, and relatives. Everything was fine before.
'One day, this madness will end. The madness that Putin unleashed will end,' she said in a shaky voice.
fv/dt/jhb
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Russia might try to take Ukrainian city of Sumy, Putin says
SAINT PETERSBURG: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he did not 'rule out' his forces attempting to seize the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, casting fresh doubt over the prospect of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine said Putin's comments showed 'disdain' for the peace process. Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year conflict have stalled in recent weeks and Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal to prolong its full-scale offensive on the country. Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has claimed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its assault in 2022, in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014. The Sumy region is not one of the regions Moscow has formally annexed, although Russian forces have recently made inroads there for the first time in three years. At Russia's flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, Putin suggested Moscow could take Sumy as part of the creation of a 'buffer zone' along the border and repeated his denial of Ukrainian statehood. 'We have no objective to take Sumy, but in principle I do not rule it out... They pose a constant threat to us, constantly shelling the border areas,' Putin said. 'I consider Russians and Ukrainians to be one people. In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours,' he told attendees, when asked why his army was entering areas Moscow did not claim as its own. 'There is a saying: wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours.' Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described Putin's comments as 'deranged' and called for Kyiv's allies to slap 'devastating sanctions' on Russia. 'The only way to force Russia into peace is to deprive it of its sense of impunity,' he wrote in a post on X. Putin's widening territorial ambitions are likely to roil Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has accused Moscow of not wanting to end the fighting. The two sides held rounds of direct talks in Istanbul in May and in June, but Kyiv accused Moscow of sending 'dummy' negotiators with no real power to enact a peace deal. Putin has declined to take part in the peace talks in person and on Thursday said he would only meet Zelensky during a 'final phase' of negotiations on ending the three-year conflict. He has also insisted Ukraine give up territory it already controls for peace. Kyiv says it cannot and will not accept Russian occupation of any part of its land. In his address Friday, Putin denied he was calling for Ukraine to 'capitulate.' 'We are not seeking Ukraine's surrender. We insist on recognition of the realities that have developed on the ground,' the Russian leader said. Putin repeated that Moscow was 'advancing on all fronts' and that his troops had penetrated up to 12 kilometers (seven miles) into the Sumy region. He also accused Kyiv of 'stupidity' by launching an incursion into Russia's Kursk region last August. 'They are creating problems for themselves,' he said. Russia has for months been rejecting calls for an unconditional ceasefire, launching deadly attacks on its neighbor.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Putin says ‘the whole of Ukraine is ours' in theory, may take city of Sumy
President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russians and Ukrainians were one people, 'and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours,' and said he did not rule out Russia taking control of the Ukrainian city of Sumy. But Putin, speaking at an international economic forum in St Petersburg, said Russia had never doubted Ukraine's right to sovereignty, but noted that when Ukraine declared its independence in 1991 it was as a 'neutral state.' Putin, who says Russia is fighting in Ukraine to protect its own security, was answering a question about Russia's war aims. 'We have a saying, or a parable,' Putin said. 'Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours.' Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea as illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. Putin said Russian forces were carving out a buffer zone in Ukraine's Sumy region in order to protect Russian territory and said he did not rule out those same troops taking control of the regional capital of Sumy.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
Zelensky appoints new ground forces chief
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Voloydmyr Zelensky on Thursday appointed Gennadiy Shapovalov as commander of the country's ground forces, replacing a previous commander who resigned following a deadly Russian strike on an army training ground. Shapovalov worked as a military aid liaison in Germany and previously commanded Ukraine's southern military district. In his evening address, Zelensky said he hoped Shapovalov would bring 'real combat experience' to the role and called for changes in the Ukrainian army, which is struggling to hold off Moscow's forces more than three years into Russia's invasion. 'Changes are needed, this is a mandatory issue,' Zelensky said in his evening address. Moscow's forces have been advancing across the front line for over a year and have been making inroads in Ukraine's Sumy region, which the Kremlin had not occupied since the start of the war. Peace talks on ending the conflict have stalled in recent weeks and Kyiv's biggest ally, Washington, is now focusing its attention on the Middle East. Russia says it is open to a peace settlement but Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging talks to prolong the fighting.
