(Dan Tri) - President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian military forces have entered the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine for the first time since 2022.
Russian army tanks in Kursk province (Photo: Kommersant)
In a brief statement on the situation on the battlefield to reporters in St. Petersburg, a day after the United States and Russia held their first high-level talks in three years in Saudi Arabia, President Putin stressed: "In the early morning of February 19, soldiers of the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade crossed the border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine and entered the territory of the enemy."
"Our troops are attacking in all areas of the front line," Mr Putin added, without providing further details.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released video of an Iskander ballistic missile striking Ukrainian artillery positions in the Sumy region and Russian naval infantrymen using kamikaze drones to attack enemy trenches.
However, the ministry did not report any major developments in the region in its daily update on February 19.
Meanwhile, Kiev has provided a different account of the events. Andrey Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Countering Disinformation Center, said that the Ukrainian military had destroyed a reconnaissance unit that had attempted to cross the border. He denied there had been a “large-scale attack” in the area.
Russia first entered the Sumy region in the early days of the conflict in February 2022 and withdrew two months later. In August 2024, Ukraine used the region to attack Russia's Kursk region and captured several border villages, as well as the town of Sudzha.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has since said he planned to use a Russian incursion across the internationally recognized border as leverage in potential peace talks.
Since then, Russian troops have been fighting to gradually push Ukrainian troops out of Kursk, with the Defense Ministry reporting the liberation of the village of Sverdlikovo on February 19. “We have taken many prisoners,” a soldier from Russia’s northern battle group told RIA Novosti.
Delegations led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Marco Rubio discussed ways to end the Ukraine conflict in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 18. Although no breakthrough was recorded, both sides agreed to work towards normalizing bilateral relations, which were suspended by the administration of former President Joe Biden, by 2022.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/tong-thong-putin-luc-luong-nga-tien-vao-khu-vuc-moi-o-ukraine-20250220101217406.htm
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