Russia wants to turn both Sumy and Kharkiv into 'gray zone'- Major Hetman

He expressed this opinion in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program.

"The enemy wants to turn both the big city of Sumy and the big city of Kharkiv into a 'gray zone'. Theoretically, it can be assumed that the invaders want to stretch our defence line. After all, Sumy region is 560 km of border with the Russian Federation. However, they may not have enough forces, because there are about 30,000 Russian soldiers concentrated there. And how do they want to stretch them along the entire front line, and even reach the Kharkiv region, because it will reach a thousand kilometres? I don't think they will do it," said Oleksii Hetman.

According to him, the invading Russian forces want to create a 'gray zone' of large cities, that is, a 'sanitary zone', as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said, more than a hundred kilometres from the border with the Russian Federation.

"Accordingly, both Sumy and Kharkiv fall into this 'sanitary zone'. To begin with, they need to make it as difficult as possible for to stay in the city. And I think they will do that, they will shell Kharkiv if they get close. Not near the border, but a little deeper, closer to Kharkiv, the fortifications that our military and political leadership, the heads of the respective civil-military administrations have talked about should be built, that is, on the territories of those communities where this defence line should run. If it is built, the enemy is unlikely to be able to advance beyond this line, and if it is built correctly, as it should be, it will be the first, second, and third lines of defence, which are interconnected," said the National Guard reserve major.

He concluded that most likely it will be just an attempt by the Russians to create a humanitarian catastrophe in large cities, in Sumy and Kharkiv. Whether they succeed or not will depend on Ukrainian fortifications, on the number of soldiers who we can send there to keep the defence, and, of course, on the speed of supply of weapons from our partners.

• The Russian army has advanced no more than 8 kilometres from the border since the start of the offensive in Kharkiv region.
• The head of the Sievierodonetsk district military administration, Roman Vlasenko, noted that the intensity of Russian military operations in Luhansk region has decreased.
• Oleksandr Skoryk, a deputy of the Kharkiv Regional Council, said that over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have neither advanced nor gained any ground in the Kharkiv region.