Russian troops push into Ukraine's Sumy region

A soldier of Ukraine's 22nd Separate Mechanised Brigade covers up a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft cannon during an exercise in the Sumy region near the Russian border, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, Aug 17, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Russia said on Sunday that its troops had taken the village of Basivka in Ukraine's Sumy region, and were battering Ukrainian forces at a host of settlements in the area.

More than two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv sent thousands of troops over the border into Russia's Kursk region in August last year though a Russian offensive over recent months has pushed most of Ukrainian forces out of Kursk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested that Russian forces carve out a buffer zone along the border.

Russia's defence ministry said that it had taken the village of Basivka, just over the border from Sudzha, and had struck Ukrainian forces at 12 other points in the Sumy region.

It said that Russia had defeated Ukrainian units in the Russian settlements of Gornal, Guevo, and Oleshnya.

The pro-Ukrainian DeepState war map shows Ukraine in control of about 63 square kilometres (24 square miles) of Russian territory, down from as much as 1,400 square kilometres claimed by Kyiv last year.

Another 81 square kilometres of territory along the border - including Basivka - is classed by DeepState as of "unknown" control.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014, and most but not all of four other regions which Moscow now claims are part of Russia - a claim not recognised by most countries.

Russia controls all of Crimea, almost all of Luhansk, and more than 70 percent of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. It also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.