Latest news with #ArmedForcesofUkraine
New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Russia deploys 50,000 troops around Sumy, threatening new push into Ukraine
Russia has amassed about 50,000 troops along Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, three times the size of Kyiv's forces in the key region — with Moscow preparing its latest push along the frontlines that have grown to more than 750 miles long. After putting an end to Ukraine's surprise counter-invasion of the Kursk region in April, Russia is now eyeing to flood the border with its troops and conquer Sumy, which had served as a main hub for Kyiv's defenses and the assault that had left Moscow humiliated. 'Their main strategy [is to] wear us down with their numbers,' Ukraine's top military commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy told the Wall Street Journal. Advertisement 5 Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi, left, is trying to fortify Kyiv's defenses along the Sumy region ahead of a Russian attack. General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine/AFP via Getty Images 5 A Ukrainian rescue worker rushes towards the ruins of a building hit by a Russian airstrike in Sumy. via REUTERS While Russia's invasion force has mainly focused on the southeast border spanning more than 620 miles, the frontline has grown by more than 100 miles over the last year as Moscow targets Sumy and other regions further north. After taking back Kursk, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his army would create a 'security buffer zone' along Sumy, the same words he used when mounting his initial invasion force in 2022. Advertisement Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was planning to form a 6-mile buffer zone, which would leave Russia's 'largest, strongest' troops with a large area for new assault. The latest push came last week when Russian troops attempted to advance into the region, with Syrskyi touting that a defensive push prevented the 50,000 Moscow fighters from deploying on Thursday. 5 A woman holds the body of a relative killed following a Russian strike in Sumy earlier this month. AP Advertisement 5 Sumy finds itself attacked on a daily basis by Russian troops, with Moscow amassing some 50,000 soldiers along the border. REUTERS Ukrainian troops fighting in Sumy, however, know that it's only a matter of time before the Russian troops make their way in due to their sheer numbers and Moscow's meat grinder combat style. 'The enemy is losing 300 to 400 people per day across the region, but they can deal with that level of casualties,' one special forces commander told the WSJ. 'They keep bringing in reserves.' A platoon commander who spent seven hours fighting Russian soldiers in June recalled how his team was pinned down in the trenches taking on wave after wave of invaders. Advertisement 5 Ukraine is attempting to fortify its border in Sumy in preparation for a new Russian push. General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine/AFP via Getty Images 'It was the cruelest fight I've ever been in,' the 25-year-old platoon commander said. 'They were attacking with infantry, drones, grenade launchers, machine guns, artillery, cluster munitions. Everything…We never had more than a five-minute break while they were regrouping.' The Ukrainian troops have also complained that despite the months-long counter-invasion into Kursk, which had Russia on the back foot, Kyiv's commanders allegedly failed to fortify the Sumy border. Syrskyi tried to quell the criticisms over the lack of fortification in Sumy, telling reporters Thursday that the area will have proper defenses to halt Moscow's looming attack. 'Additional fortifications, the establishment of 'kill zones', the construction of anti-drone corridors to protect our soldiers and ensure more reliable logistics for our troops are obvious tasks that are being carried out,' he said. The buildup in Sumy comes as analysts and experts have warned that Moscow is likely preparing for a big push further into Ukraine this summer after months of small advancements along the frontlines.
Novaya Gazeta Europe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
Offensive? What offensive? Analysts react to the Ukrainian military chief's claim that a Russian offensive in the Sumy region has been halted — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has compared the Russian summer offensive in Ukraine's northern Sumy region to its unsuccessful attempt to recapture territory in the Kharkiv region last year. According to Syrskyi, AFU units have now retaken the Ukrainian territory briefly held by Russian forces in the border areas of the Sumy region, cutting off approximately '50,000 Russian servicemen, including elite air force and marine brigades'. Syrskyi also said that an AFU offensive around the town of Glushkovo in Russia's neighbouring Kursk region had 'forced the enemy to send troops to defend their territory, significantly reducing their offensive capabilities' in the Sumy region. Syrskyi added that a special force had been assembled to defend the Sumy region and that work was underway to strengthen Ukrainian defences and create fortification barriers. 'In the Sumy region, the enemy advance hasn't been completely stopped,' an AFU serviceman who asked only to be identified as Serhiy told Novaya Gazeta Europe. 'The situation may no longer be critical … but it is still complex and far from stable. This is especially true for the villages of Yunakivka, Yablunivka, Varachyne and several others. These areas have seen tactical advances by the enemy, which has been repelled from Andriivka, but their attempts to regain control of these villages and positions they have lost are ongoing.' 'The situation in the Sumy region is definitely better than a month ago,' Russian military researcher Kirill Mikhailov told Novaya Europe. 'The Russians haven't been able to advance anywhere in recent days. It's difficult to analyse the effect of Ukrainian attacks on Tyotkino in the Kursk region, but there are several Russian units there, which are periodically being rotated due to losses.' 'There has been no Russian offensive in the Sumy region,' says Roman Svitan, a military expert and AFU reserve colonel. 'In fact, recent Russian activity was just a continuation of fighting following the AFU being squeezed out of the Kursk region. … The enemy was able to move a little deeper into the Sumy region and capture about 10 border villages. To paraphrase Syrskyi, the Russians have run out of steam and the AFU retreat is over.' Barbed wire on the front line in the Sumy region, June 2025. Photo: AFU General Staff Svitan added that the deployment of 50,000 Russian troops to the area by Russia's high command was insufficient for a full-scale offensive. 'Over 300,000 people live in Sumy. Storming a city like that would take years to organise.' 'The state of fortifications in the Sumy border region has been sharply criticised by Ukrainian analysts and military bloggers,' Mikhailov adds. 'During the Kursk operation, the AFU did nothing to strengthen the border while it was under their control,' he said, before suggesting that Syrskyi's sudden activity in the area had been fuelled by the public criticism he subsequently received. Svitan, however, said he believed that the damage inflicted by the AFU on border settlements in Russia's Kursk region would help to ensure that Ukrainian positions in the Sumy region could be defended. According to him, AFU defensive lines in the Sumy region are located in areas of forest and woodland, as building fortifications anywhere else would expose them to attacks from glide bombs or drones. So far, the Russians have been unable to reach the first line of Ukrainian defence structures. 'All this activity in the Sumy region is aimed at distracting the AFU from … Pokrovsk and at some point Zaporizhzhia,' says Svitan. 'The Russians are now preparing to expand their land corridor to Crimea. All other territorial advances are secondary concerns.'
Novaya Gazeta Europe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
Ukrainian F-16 pilot killed defending country from barrage of overnight Russian airstrikes — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Rescuers at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in the town of Smila, in central Ukraine's Cherkasy region, 29 June 2025. Photo: Russia launched a barrage of airstrikes on targets across Ukraine overnight Saturday, in a series of attacks that involved 477 drones and 60 missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force announced on Sunday. In total, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) managed to intercept 211 drones, while a further 225 failed to reach their targets, and some 33 Russian cruise missiles were shot down, the Ukrainian Air Force added. Intensive airstrikes were recorded in the Lviv, Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy regions, as well as in the city of Kremenchuk in Ukraine's Poltava region and the southern ship-building city of Mykolaiv, according to breaking news Telegram channel ASTRA. In the town of Smila in central Ukraine's Chekasy region, a Russian drone strike injured six people and caused significant damage to three nine-storey buildings, as well as the National University of Food Technologies campus in the town, according to Chekasy regional head Ihor Taburets. In the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, one person from the village of Naraevka was hospitalised with injuries sustained in a Russian drone strike, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ukraine's new, drone-delivered weapon is basically a phallic claymore
Sometimes, the absolute legends in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their booster clubs are so funny that we almost forget they're actually, at every moment, at war. And that was the case today when Reddit user GermanDronePilot on r/UkraineWarVideoReport shared the video of a Ukrainian pouring ball bearings into the casing for a 'shaped' charge. But the shape of the object is, well, not what you would typically expect. Or maybe you knew it would come to this eventually. In case anyone who didn't know is incredibly confused at the moment, there's an old internet saying: 'The Dildo of Consequences rarely arrives lubed.' And it is an apt expression. Except the lube probably wouldn't help in this case, even if it did arrive lubed. Anyone who gets this inside of them, becomes urgent surgical in a single thrust. Even worse if the explosives are present. Typically, explosives are either formed to fit snugly in a tight space (think of hand grenades or most mines) or else they're shaped charges, where a specific cavity is left open so that the explosive power is directed out of the cavity. But someone fighting in Ukraine got the idea to make a charge shaped like a massive penis. And we applaud them. The video, embedded below, shows someone handling a hollow dildo, and that sucker is at least a two-hander. The video is purportedly from Ukraine, and the Ukrainian (or volunteer) is filling a hollow wall within our phallic friend with hundreds of tiny ball bearings before screwing it as hard as they can. They leave a center cavity open, likely for a frontline soldier to fill with explosives just before they load the novelty weapon. Many Ukrainian First-Person View (FPV) drones and their payloads are assembled on the frontlines from modular components, and each drone and its payload are carefully selected according to mission needs. It's impossible to say what mission requires such a powerful 10 inches, though. Even New Jersey bachelorette parties typically have less explosive power than this gag gift. It's like a Bangalore torpedo took little blue pills. But the cavity in the Big, Bold Chuck is large enough to fit a couple of pounds of explosive, so the whole thing is essentially a large, phallic Claymore mine. Of course, the rubber layer on the outside of the Dildo of Consequences will absorb the explosion and might make it feel less raw for the participants, but most doctors say that's a good thing that can prevent Statistically Terrifying Damage to whoever receives this gift. The "Dildo of Consequences" is now a real thing. Ukrainian soldiers show what their drones are going to drop on the invaders. June 2025 byu/GermanDronePilot inUkraineWarVideoReport by u/GermanDronePilot in UkraineWarVideoReport This drone payload definitely deserves to make military history, like that time a Navy commander dropped a toilet on North Vietnam. We Are The Mighty is a celebration of military service, with a mission to entertain, inform, and inspire those who serve and those who support them. We are made by and for current service members, veterans, spouses, family members, and civilians who want to be part of this community. Keep up with the best in military culture and entertainment: subscribe to the We Are The Mighty newsletter. 6 Chinese weapons that are direct rip-offs of American ones This kid turned in a lost Nazi fighter as homework The 6 most-secret units in military history
17-06-2025
- Politics
14 dead in overnight Russian attack on Kyiv, General Staff says
An overnight Russian strike on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, killed 14 people and wounded another 40 people, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in an update early Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether others may be trapped beneath the rubble, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor, said in an update on the Telegram messaging app. Emergency personnel were working at several sites, including a residential building in the Solomianskyi district, where "an entire entrance collapsed," Klitschko said.
