Putin Claims Fresh Ground Attack on Northeastern Ukraine Denied by Kyiv

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said his troops had crossed into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region – a first ground attack there since 2022 – but Kyiv swiftly denied the claim.

“I was told an hour ago that at night fighters of the 810th brigade crossed the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and entered the territory of the enemy,” Putin said in televised remarks.

Russian state media clarified that that unit was deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy region. The DeepState website, with ties to Ukraine’s military, also said that that brigade was fighting there.

Kyiv rejected the claims of a major Russian operation and said it had destroyed a small sabotage group.

“Putin’s information about a large-scale Russian offensive is a lie,” said Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s center for countering Disinformation, part of the National Security and Defense Council.

“There was an attempt by a Russian reconnaissance group to enter the territory of Ukraine. The subversive-reconnaissance group was destroyed. There are currently no Russian troops capable of carrying out a large-scale offensive into the territory of Ukraine,” he said.

Moscow’s troops attacked the Sumy region at the start of their February 2022 offensive but withdrew six weeks later.

Any attempt by Russia to seize more Ukrainian territory in a new region would mark a fresh escalation in the conflict, just as US President Donald Trump is pushing for a rapid end to the fighting.