Ukrainian Troops Are On the Attack In Sumy—And Advancing
Moscow stripped troops from Sumy to double down on its attack in Donetsk; for Kyiv, that was an opportunity
Russian troops are falling back in Sumy Oblast in northern Ukraine.
That’s not surprising. The Kremlin has pulled no fewer than five marine and airborne brigades, regiments and divisions from Sumy and redirected them south to Donetsk Oblast, where a pair of Russian field armies are struggling to hold back a Ukrainian counterattack.
Both sides in Russia’s 43-month wider war on Ukraine have shifted troops from Sumy to Donetsk as the battle for the fortress city of Pokrovsk intensifies. But it’s evident the Russians have weakened their forces in Sumy more than the Ukrainians have.
In recent days, Ukrainian troops have ejected the Russians from the area around the villages of Kostiantynivka and Novokostiantynivka in Sumy just a few hundred meters from the border with Russia, analysis group Deep State reported Sunday.
“There are achievements in the Sumy region,” Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sept. 12.
It seems the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade is the main Russian formation in the vicinity of Kostiantynivka and Novokostiantynivka. It’s the last large marine unit left in Sumy after the Kremlin concentrated five marine regiments and brigades east of Pokrovsk in recent weeks.
Pokrovsk is one of the last major Ukrainian strongholds between hundreds of thousands of Russian troops and the main Kramatorsk-Sloviansk urban center in western Donetsk. If Pokrovsk falls, all of Donetsk may fall.
Donetsk is the priority. And the Kremlin seems to be willing to risk its gains in Sumy to make further gains in Donetsk. In addition to moving the marines to the east at the expense of the north, Russian commanders have shifted existing field armies in the sector surrounding Pokrovsk.
East of Pokrovsk, three Russian field armies and corps—the 8th and 51st Combined Arms Armies and the 68th Army Corps—face around nine Ukrainian regiments and brigades plus a few separate battalions, some of them under the command of the new 1st Azov Corps.
Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.
