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After several months of fierce fighting, Ukraine says it has stopped a Russian advance in north-east Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“As of today, we can state that the Russian offensive operation in (the Sumy region) has been completely foiled by our forces,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyi wrote in a post on Telegram following a consultation with the army leadership, including army commander-in-chief Olexander Syrskyi.<\/p>\n
The fighting in the border areas was continuing, but the Russian group was no longer in a position to attack, Zelensky asserted.<\/p>\n
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again declared that the Russian army should conquer a buffer zone of around 10 kilometres in the Ukrainian border region of Sumy.<\/p>\n
This was intended to prevent Ukrainian advances, including into the western Russian region of Kursk, as was the case last year.<\/p>\n
According to Ukrainian military observers, Russian troops continue to control more than 200 square kilometres in the Sumy region.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than three and a half years with Western help.<\/p>\n
Including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, almost a fifth of Ukraine’s territory is now under Russian control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n