Changing direction of attack, Russian troops are 18 km away from Sumy city
Russian troops are advancing under artillery and missile fire into Sumy, from south of Alekseyevka, 18 km away from the outskirts of the city of Sumy.
Báo Khoa học và Đời sống•01/06/2025
Multiple rocket artillery attacks on the areas of operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the Konotop region, as well as north of the city of Sumy, are ongoing; artillery shells are constantly heard on the border between Russia's Kursk Oblast and the Belopolye District of Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, the Russian website Topwar reported.
In addition, the RFAF tactical air force, carrying out heavy airstrikes in the area, destroyed AFU ammunition depots in the area of the village of Terny, located between Konotop and Sumy. It can be seen that the Russian army (RFAF) is conducting an artillery attack phase, reducing AFU activities in the Sumy border area and also in the rear area. Notable fighting in the area was that the RFAF took control of the village of Oleksiivka (known as Alekseyevka in Russian) and extended its zone of control to the banks of the Sinyak River. This tactical move by the RFAF posed a threat to Ukrainian forces in the adjacent villages of Andreyevka and Kindrativka. At the same time, the RFAF Army Group North was advancing south of Oleksiivka, which it had previously taken control of. As of the evening of May 31, the distance from the forward units of the Northern Army Group, south of the village of Oleksiivka, to the northern outskirts of the city of Sumy was only about 18 km. At the same time, the AFU was also mobilizing its reserve forces, determined to hold the village of Yunakivka, in the direction of the H07 (R200) axis. The Yunakivka direction was considered the main direction of the Northern Army Group's attack on the territory of the former Sumy Oblast; but due to the AFU reinforcements in Yunakivka, the Northern Army Group changed the direction of attack, broke through to the village of Oleksiivka, on the right flank of the attack direction, and achieved important results. The active attacks of the RFAF in recent days in Sumy province, threaten to disrupt the military logistics transport route, along the Putivl-Sumy, Konotop-Sumy and Kyiv-Sumy routes of the Ukrainian army.
After taking control of the village of Oleksiivka, the Russian troops here advanced further south – towards Malaya Korchakovka. Behind Mala Korchakovka – in the area of the N07 Sumy-Yunakovka road, the Ukrainian troops are building up defensive positions in a forest, trying to create a defensive line north of the center of the area. The distance from the forward units of the RFAF Northern Group to the northern outskirts of Sumy is about 18 km. At the same time, the city of Sumy is not only a regional center, but also a convergence point of the main routes in northeastern Ukraine. Such a distance, in the context of the Russian army's continued advance, shows that the RFAF Northern Group has the ability to control by fire at least part of some of the roads leading to Sumy. And first of all, the P44 Sumy-Putivl-Glukhov road. This road could even be completely cut off, if the Russian army switches from defense to offense in the Tyotkino-Ryzhevka area. To the south of the P44 road are the roads to Konotop (P61) and to Kiev (the next section of the H07 axis). And if the AFU loses control of these roads, they, together with the reserve forces in Sumy, will be cut off from the north, east and west. There will be only a “green corridor” through Trostyanets towards Poltava.
Thus, the logistics of AFU's cargo legs in the Terny area shows that AFU cannot move along route P61 with absolute safety even at present, when RFAF does not have on-site control of these routes. So, in fact, any advance of the RFAF Northern Army Group in the northeast of the Sumy region, if not leading to the collapse of the AFU front there, would at least lead to a disruption of the AFU's logistics in this direction. Ayden Channel commented that Russia's goal was to create a large-scale incursion into Sumy, in order to force the large AFU forces to stay in this area, in order to maintain a new front in the Sumy region. The advantage was that after clearing the Ukrainian troops from Kursk, the RFAF captured a bridgehead of about 60 square kilometers, allowing them to advance towards the city of Sumy. Another problem is that if the Ukrainian military cannot reinforce air defense units in the Sumy region, the RFAF's medium-range attack UAVs, such as the Orion and Forpost, will be extremely dangerous air attack weapons for the AFU in this region.
However, Sumy is strongly reinforced by the AFU, so it is unlikely that the RFAF will penetrate deeply into this area and go against Russia's operational doctrine in Ukraine over the past two and a half years, with the motto of advancing slowly like "silkworms eating mulberry leaves", aiming to wear down the enemy's fighting strength before launching the "final blow". (photo source Topwar, Rybar, Ukrinform).
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