Ukrainian Armed Forces confirm that Russians crossed the border and abducted more than fifty civilians in Sumy region – map

Russian invaders crossed the Ukrainian border near the village of Hrabovske in Sumy region – the invaders took more than 50 civilians from the village. This was reported by Dmytro Lykhoviy, an officer of the Main Communications Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the comments to Ukrainska Pravda.

According to the military, due to the occupants' offensive, the Defense Forces withdrew from several positions in the vicinity of Hrabovske, and stabilization operations are underway there.

After capturing the settlement, the occupiers forcibly deported more than fifty Ukrainian civilians to Russia, mostly elderly men and women (one of them is 89 years old), almost all of whom had previously refused to be evacuated deep into Ukrainian territory, emphasized Lykhoviy.

He noted that law enforcement agencies are already investigating this forced deportation, and the Armed Forces consider the incident a violation of the Geneva Convention.

The defenders also call on residents of the border areas to evacuate. According to the officer, more than 30,000 people have already been evacuated, and almost 5,700 more (including 38 children) have refused to leave.

Earlier, on the evening of December 20, the head of the Sumy Regional State Administration, Oleh Hryhorov, said that on that day some of the people who had previously refused to leave were evacuated by armored vehicles from the Krasnopillia community.

In particular, it includes the aforementioned Hrabovske. The Ukrainian analytical project Deepstate records a part of the settlement and the territory near it in the gray zone. This means that active hostilities are taking place there, and it is not known exactly who controls this territory.

Hrabovske is located on a different part of the borderlands than the one plot, which in the spring of 2025 was occupied by the Russians (the second map below shows the territory colored in red).

UPDATED. Battles with Russian occupants are taking place in the Hrabovske, the Joint Forces Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.

The spokesman for the group, Victor Tregubov, said LIGA.net, regarding the actions of the occupiers in this area, that it "looks more like a provocation".

• Earlier, about the forced removal of people from Hrabovske said village headman. According to her, there were no children among them.