The Defense Department in Moscow is going out and announcing that Russian troops have taken over the villages of Volodymyrivka and Bilovody, which are located in the Sumy region and right next to the border with the Russian region. The invasion troops asserted control over another nearby locality a few days ago.
The alleged Russian advances have not been confirmed by any Ukrainian data or independent observers.
Ukraine launched a surprising counteroffensive into Kursk last summer and controlled part of the region for a long time, but the Ukrainian forces were pushed back across the border earlier this year.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin appeared last Wednesday in a military context with a joking tone, hinting that the Russian military could attack the larger city of Sumy, which is located several miles further into Ukraine from the aforementioned border areas. The city had around 250,000 inhabitants before the larger outbreak of war.
