Ukrainian military official dismisses Russia's capacity for major Sumy Oblast attack
Consequences of shelling in Sumy Oblast (Photo: Dmytro Zhyvytskyi)

Russia does not have enough troops to carry out a large-scale offensive on Sumy Oblast, the spokesman of the operational-tactical troop grouping Siversk, Vadym Mysnyk announced on national television.

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"A certain accumulation is happening, but a critical group has not been created to carry out a large-scale offensive. So if they choose a direction for such actions, it will be noticeable, our intelligence is working. And according to the development of events, we will respond, carry out our defensive measures," he said.

The section of the state border in Sumy Oblast is almost 560 km long. The Russians are shelling the settlements there along the entire border line, but with varying intensity.

"Current tactics, as we saw in Kharkiv Oblast, are that they first attract small units, and then pull up equipment from the depths. They try not to keep their equipment near the border," explained Mysnyk.

On May 13, 2024, Sumy Oblast authorities decided to start early voluntary evacuation from the border towns of Bilopillia and Vorozhba.

On the same evening, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that the activity of the Russian miitary against Sumy Oblast and Chernihiv Oblast was being recorded – sabotage and reconnaissance groups and shelling, but Ukraine was responding to them with fire.

On May 14, Ukraine's spymaster Kyrylo Budanov said that now small groups of Russian soldiers are concentrated in the area of the Russian city of Sudzha on the border with Sumy Oblast.