Ukraine dismisses ‘encirclement’ claims: Russian troops held far from Sumy

Russian invading forces have seized several settlements directly along the border in the Sumy region, but all attempts to infiltrate deeper into Ukrainian territory are being promptly thwarted.

According to Ukrinform, this was reported on Facebook by the Joint Forces grouping.

The Joint Forces noted that they are responsible for the defense of the southern part of the Sumy region.

“Regarding statements circulating in the media about a ‘threat of semi-encirclement of Sumy from the north and east,’ we would like to clarify that after many months of attempts by Russian forces to push deeper into Ukrainian territory in the Sumy region, they have managed to occupy several settlements directly on the border, such as Hrabovske and Myropilske. As a result, the zone of enemy control in the border area extends to a depth of up to 3-4 kilometers, while the city of Sumy itself is more than 35 kilometers away,” the military said.

The Joint Forces urged this to be taken into account when assessing claims about the “encirclement of the city from the east,” emphasizing that all enemy attempts to infiltrate Ukrainian territory are being prevented and stopped in time.

“The invaders will not succeed, and they can keep their ‘dreams’ of any ‘envelopment’ or ‘encirclement’ to themselves,” the military added.

As previously reported by Ukrinform, Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that an infiltration zone of Russian forces has been recorded in the border areas of the Sumy region. These forces are trying to intensify assault operations, but there has been no breakthrough deeper into Ukrainian territory.