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Russia captures village of Loknia in Sumy Oblast, monitoring group says

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Russia captures village of Loknia in Sumy Oblast, monitoring group says
Big letters 'Sumy' stand at the entrance to the city of Sumy, Ukraine, on Aug. 12, 2024. (Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Russian forces have occupied the village of Loknia in Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, the open-source battlefield monitoring group DeepState reported on June 8.

Located roughly 30 kilometers (some 18 miles) north of the city of Sumy, Loknia lies near the Russian border in a strategically exposed area.

While Russia's Defense Ministry claimed control over the village on May 24, DeepState's latest assessment marks the first independent confirmation of the development.

Ukraine's General Staff has not yet commented on the matter.

Sumy Oblast, which borders Russia and three other Ukrainian oblasts — Chernihiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv — has seen escalating attacks in recent weeks as Russia intensifies cross-border operations.

Article image
The estimated Russian advance in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine, as of June 8, 2025, according to DeepState map. A black symbol marks the village of Loknia. (DeepState / OpenStreetMaps)

Russian advances into Sumy have gained momentum since Ukrainian forces withdrew from most of their foothold in Russia's Kursk Oblast in March.

In May Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to create a so-called "security buffer zone" along the border with Ukraine, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 28 that Moscow had massed 50,000 troops near Sumy.

The situation has forced widespread evacuations. On May 31, regional Governor Oleh Hryhorov announced mandatory evacuation orders for 11 more villages due to intensifying attacks, bringing the total number of evacuated settlements in Sumy Oblast to 213.

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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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