Russian Forces Attack Large Town in Sumy Along Border

Russian forces crossed the border from Russia’s Kursk region on Friday, launching a new offensive into the Ukrainian town of Myropillya, located in the Sumy region. The attack marks the opening of a fresh sector in the conflict and may offer Moscow new routes to expand its military presence deeper into northeastern Ukraine.

Myropillya lies directly on the Ukrainian-Russian border and sits just outside a salient of Ukrainian territory surrounded by Russian-held areas on three sides. While Russian forces had crossed into this salient in previous months, they had not pushed further until this week. Capturing Myropillya would effectively trap any remaining Ukrainian forces within the salient and eliminate the possibility of future incursions into the Kursk region from this direction.

During last year’s Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, Myropillya and its surrounding areas were used to stage operations into Russian territory. Ukrainian forces briefly held land north of the town near Sudzha, which served as a command point during the incursion.

The town’s strategic significance is amplified by two highways that run south through it, one of which leads directly to the regional capital, Sumy. If Russian forces successfully take control of Myropillya, they will gain the ability to advance southward and broaden their offensive into the heart of the Sumy region.

This latest development follows the recent Russian capture of Yunakovka, a town that served as Ukraine’s launchpad for the previous Kursk operation. The intensification of fighting in the area could also be linked to recent Ukrainian artillery shelling into the Kursk region, which reportedly resulted in the death of a five-year-old boy earlier this week.

Back in May, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the creation of a “buffer zone” within Ukraine’s Sumy region to protect Russian territory from future attacks. While it remains unclear whether capturing the city of Sumy itself is a current military objective, Russian troops are now less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city, approaching from the northwest. Putin has previously stated that occupying Sumy is not presently part of Russia’s military plans.

The developments suggest a strategic shift by Moscow aimed at both neutralizing cross-border threats and opening new vectors for offensive operations into northeastern Ukraine.