Russia aims to expand “gray zone” near Sumy, city not priority - journalist

Journalist Alona Yatsyna from Kordon.Media shared the information on Espreso TV.

“As for Putin’s words that there are no plans to advance on Sumy, according to information known to me and our editorial team from our own sources, the Russians’ tactical objective in the Sumy direction is not the city of Sumy. Russian forces are currently trying to expand the ‘gray zone’ along the border line and seize commanding heights there. So the tactical objective of the Russian occupiers concerns not the city itself, but the border villages of the Myropillia, Yunakivka, and Khotin communities. We’re seeing partial presence of Russian infantry in the Krasnopillia community and, from time to time, in villages of the Bilopillia community. These are communities in the Sumy district that border Russia,” Alona Yatsyna noted.

The journalist added that the most active area on the Sumy axis right now is the Yunakivka region.

• On June 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that this week the Russian army advanced 200 meters toward Sumy, while the Ukrainian Armed Forces pushed them back by 200–400 meters.
• On June 22, the OSINT project DeepState reported that Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops out of the village of Andriivka in the Sumy region.