The spokesman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko, said that an attack by Russian forces on the Sumy region should not be ruled out.
Border guards talked about a possible Russian offensive on the Sumy region
As in the north of the Kharkiv region, the Russian military may try to advance there to distract Ukrainian forces from other areas of the front.
It can never be ruled out, and I emphasised that, including in the Sumy direction. The enemy can at any moment, even if he does not have sufficient forces, try to do something similar, as is currently happening in the Kharkiv direction. Precisely in order to stretch the front line, the line of active combat operations and actually stretch the defense forces of our country, said Ukrainian State Border Guard Service (SBGS) speaker, Andriy Demchenko.
He noted that each component of the Defence Forces has its area of responsibility in the Sumy direction. They all act coordinated, and the defence in this direction should be further strengthened.
As long as we have such a neighbour, of course, we must be prepared for the development of any situations. And we must continue to build up our defence capabilities... We must also understand that the length of the border with our enemy is quite large. Only in the Sumy region - more than 560 kilometers. And, in fact, even by bringing in the forces that we have, which we can bring there, we have to keep our defense strong, because the enemy prevails in terms of equipment, weapons, and personnel, unfortunately, the spokesman said.
Budanov suggested a new direction of the Russian army's offensive after the Kharkiv region
According to the DIU chief, Lt Gen Kyrylo Budanov, Russia will launch a new offensive further north of Kharkiv in the Sumy region.
Budanov predicted that attacks in the Kharkiv region would continue for another three to four days, after which Russian forces were expected to make a major push toward Sumy.
As the publication notes, Ukrainian officials previously stated that Russia had concentrated troops across the border from the Sumy side.
At the same time, Pavlo Velychko, a Ukrainian officer operating near the Russian border in the Sumy region, reported that Russian shelling of the outskirts of Sumy had intensified recently.
I have no idea if it makes any difference because these places have been shelled so often. In any case, we are in full combat readiness.