Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Thursday that its forces had seized the village of Zhuravka in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, though Ukrainian officials have not confirmed the loss.
The area, which lies across from Russia’s Kursk region, has come under frequent airstrikes as Moscow attempts to push out remaining Ukrainian troops – eight months after launching a cross-border incursion that captured swaths of territory.
While Ukrainian officials reported increased Russian military activity near the border, they did not acknowledge that Zhuravka had fallen.
Four days earlier, Moscow claimed to have taken another village in the region, Basivka – a claim Ukrainian officials denied.
Russia’s Defense Ministry provided no further details beyond stating its troops were now in control of Zhuravka.
Russian state news agency Tass quoted security sources saying the advance brought Russian forces closer to a third locality, Yunakivka, described as a logistics hub for Ukrainian troops engaged in fighting across the border in Kursk.
Sumy region Gov. Volodymyr Artiukh told regional defense officials that Russian attacks in the area had intensified by 30% over the past week.
“Over the past seven days, the Russians have launched 47 assault operations on our defenders’ positions,” Artiukh said in a Facebook post.
“The enemy’s main efforts are focused on the area around the settlements of Zhuravka and Basivka.”
Artiukh said Russian forces continue to strike civilian infrastructure, including recent assaults on food industry sites such as meat-packing plants and dairies.
He also said Russia remained focused on Ukrainian forces still holding ground in Russia’s Kursk region, who were “delivering a worthy rebuff to the enemy and inflicting significant losses.”
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly floated the idea of creating a buffer zone along Russia’s border.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released video purporting to show the recapture of the settlement of Guyevo, one of the few remaining Ukrainian-held positions in the Kursk region.
This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged for the first time that Kyiv’s forces were also operating in Russia’s Belgorod region, another border zone, to protect nearby towns on the Ukrainian side.
