Zelenskyy claims ‘good results’ from Ukrainian forces in border area of Sumy region

ISTANBUL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed “good results” from his country’s forces in the border area of the Sumy region, where Ukrainian and Russian troops have been engaged in intense clashes in recent months.

In an evening video address shared on US social media company X late Sunday, Zelenskyy said he listened to a report over the past day by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and that Ukrainian forces are continuing to advance toward Ukraine’s border with Russia in the northeastern region.

“There are good results in the border area of the Sumy region … The Russians are also suffering significant losses in the Kharkiv region – in Kupyansk – and in the Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian president said.

He said that Ukrainian troops are also continuing their actions near the city of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region and are repelling Russian assaults.

“We are also acting according to the situation in the Zaporizhzhia region,” the Ukrainian Zelenskyy added.

Last month, Kyiv claimed that Russian troops launched a push toward Dobropillia, about 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) north of Pokrovsk, a key front in the ongoing Ukraine war in the Donetsk region, though local authorities have said that the situation in the area has been “stabilized.”

In April, Russia claimed to have pushed Ukrainian troops out of its border region of Kursk, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August last year, after which Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the creation of a “security buffer zone” along the border between the two countries.

Since then, Moscow has claimed to have taken control of multiple settlements in the Sumy region, while its administrative center, the city of Sumy, has been regularly targeted by Russian airstrikes.

Zelenskyy claimed last week that Russia's offensive in the Sumy region was "completely thwarted."

Russian authorities have not immediately commented on Zelenskyy's claims, and independent verification of the claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.