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Confusion over Russian advances in Sumy Oblast, authorities deny border breach

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Confusion over Russian advances in Sumy Oblast, authorities deny border breach
Ukrainian servicemen guard an area at a destroyed border crossing point with Russia, in the Sumy region, on Aug. 14, 2024. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug, 14 that Ukrainian troops are "moving further" into Russia, as Kyiv's biggest cross-border attack stretched into a second week. The Ukrainian army entered Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6, 2024. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysts from the crowd-sourced monitoring website DeepState Map reported on Dec. 10 that Russian forces had advanced in Sumy Oblast near the border village of Oleksandriya.

DeepState is a mapping project, independent but with close ties to the Defense Ministry, widely trusted as one of the most reliable sources of accurate information on territorial changes along the front line.

The map changes showed Russian forces occupying 2 square kilometers (0,8 square miles) in Sumy and advancing in the Kursk Oblast. These developments are reflected as of December 10.

Sumy Oblast authorities, including head of the Military Administration Volodymyr Artyukh, rejected the notion that Russian forces had breached the border, calling the reports "fake" and describing them as disinformation.

"Now, there is no data from the military on the change of the situation on the border; the situation is controlled," Artyukh said.

Sumy Oblast borders Russia's Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod oblasts. Residents of the vulnerable border communities experience multiple attacks per day.

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Tim Zadorozhnyy

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Tim Zadorozhnyy is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent covering foreign policy, U.S.-Ukraine relations, and political developments across Europe and Russia. He studied International Relations and European Studies at Lazarski University and Coventry University. Tim began his journalism career in Odesa in 2022 as a reporter for a local television channel. He later spent a year and a half at the Belarusian independent media outlet NEXTA, first as a news anchor and later as a managing editor. He is fluent in English, Ukrainian, and Russian.

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