President Putin: Russian forces enter new area in Ukraine

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian military forces have entered the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine for the first time since 2022.

Russian army tanks in Kursk province (Photo: Kommersant)

In a brief statement to reporters in St. Petersburg regarding the battlefield situation, a day after the US and Russia held their first high-level talks in three years in Saudi Arabia, President Putin emphasized: "Early on the morning of February 19, soldiers of the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade crossed the border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine and entered enemy territory."

"Our troops are attacking in every area of ​​the front line," Putin added, but provided no further details.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has posted a video showing an Iskander ballistic missile striking Ukrainian artillery positions in the Sumy region and Russian naval infantry using kamikaze drones to attack enemy trenches.

However, the ministry did not report any major progress in the region in its daily update on February 19.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has provided a different account of these events. Andrey Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Counter-Disinformation, stated that Ukrainian troops destroyed a reconnaissance unit that attempted to cross the border. He denied a "large-scale attack" in the region.

Russia first advanced into the Sumy region in the early days of the conflict in February 2022 and withdrew two months later. In August 2024, Ukraine used the area to attack Russia's Kursk region and seized several border villages, as well as the town of Sudzha.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has since said that he plans to use an attack across Russia's internationally recognized border as leverage in potential peace talks.

Since then, Russian forces have been fighting to gradually push Ukrainian troops out of Kursk, with the Defense Ministry reporting the liberation of the village of Sverdlikovo on February 19. "We have captured many prisoners," a soldier from Russia's Northern Combat Group told RIA Novosti.

Delegations led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Marco Rubio discussed avenues to end the Ukraine conflict in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18. While no breakthroughs were recorded, both sides agreed to work towards normalizing bilateral relations, which had been suspended by the administration of former President Joe Biden in 2022.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/tong-thong-putin-luc-luong-nga-tien-vao-khu-vuc-moi-o-ukraine-20250220101217406.htm