Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky claims Ukrainian troops ‘gradually pushing back’ Putin’s forces in Sumy

In the first five months of his second term, the US president has aggressively pushed for peace but refused to offer unconditional support to Kyiv in its defence against Russian aggression.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Brennan said the US president’s approach to forcing through a quick peace deal in Ukraine was “naive” and “unsophisticated”.

“I think that Donald Trump doesn’t know what he will do,” said Brennan when asked what the president will do next to secure peace in Ukraine.

My colleague Alex Croft reports:

Volodymyr Zelensky has announced Kyiv is seeking to boost investment for Ukraine’s air defence infrastructure.

“We have some weapons still in development, some systems have already been developed, and we are trying to secure more funding for mass production,” Mr Zelensky said.

“These include various types of intercepter drones, among other things.”

He said he will “not disclose which systems are located where, or which energy facilities they protect”.

German defence minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv to discuss further weapons aid for Ukraine.

“The purpose of the trip is mainly to demonstrate… that Germany, that the new federal government, continues to stand by Ukraine in the current situation, which has not become any easier,” Mr Pistorius told journalists upon his arrival in Kyiv yesterday.

Germany is Ukraine’s second-biggest military backer after the United States, and German chancellor Friedrich Merz recently gave Ukraine the green light for “long range fire” with weapons supplied by Germany and others, angering Moscow.

Russia and Ukraine met for peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month in a renewed push to settle the conflict, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, but efforts to end the three-year conflict with Russia faced headwinds.

The two sides disagree over issues including territorial concessions and the prospect of Ukraine’s future Nato membership, however, and fighting has raged on, with a Russian drone attack killing several people this week.

The number of displaced people arriving in Ukraine’s war-hit Sumy region is increasing, said Kateryna Arisoi, head of Pluriton, a non-governmental organisation that operates a shelter for internally displaced people.

“We are seeing the frontline slowly moving toward Sumy,” she said. “So far evacuation has been ordered in more than 200 settlements.”

Last week, a Russian rocket attack on Sumy killed three people and injured 28, including three children, while also damaging several buildings.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in their attacks, but thousands of civilians have died in the three-year-long conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Russia, which controls just under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has seized over 190 sq kms (73 square miles) of the Sumy region in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open-source maps.

Russian troops have captured more ground in the past days, advancing to around 20 kilometres from Sumy’s northern suburbs, bringing the city closer to being within the range of long-range artillery and drones.

Ukraine’s military has claimed that Russian troop losses have reached one million.

Of those million soldiers either killed or wounded, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said well over half of those casualties – more than 628,000 -occurred in the last year and a half.

“This is the price the enemy pays for unleashing a bloody war in Ukraine,” the armed forces said.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were gradually pushing Russian forces out of the border Sumy region, where Moscow was able to establish a foothold in recent weeks.

Russian forces have been moving into Sumy region since April when Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin called for the creation of a buffer zone following the eviction of Ukrainian troops from Russia’s western Kursk region.

Both Russian and Ukrainian reports indicate that Russian forces have seized a series of villages in Sumy, which has for many months also come under heavy Russian air attacks. And Russian reports said Moscow’s troops were advancing in the area.

“Our units in Sumy region are gradually pushing back the occupiers,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “I thank you! Thanks to every soldier, sergeant and officer for this result.”

The Ukrainian president provided no further details and offered no proof of Ukrainian advances in the area.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said there had been a concentration of Russian men and equipment in the Sumy region because of months of military operations across the border in Kursk region. He advised caution to establish details of the situation on the ground.

“I think the military has the situation under control and I think we shall see a different picture in the coming days,” Mr Podolyak told Ukrainian TV Channel 24.

Russia has redeployed dozens of its long-range bombers to bases in the Far East following Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web attack earlier this month.

The Kyiv Independent, citing independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, said all Tu-160 bombers had been evacuated from Belaya airfield in Irkutsk Oblast and Olenya airfield in Murmansk Oblast.

Ukraine’s drone strike attack targeted Russian planes at five air bases.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will attend the G7 summit in Canada next week and hopes to meet Donald Trump there.

Mr Zelensky told a news briefing that he hopes to discuss continued support for Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and future financing for Kyiv’s reconstruction efforts during the summit.

Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky last met at the Vatican in April, ahead of the funeral of Pope Francis.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said that drones had played a major role in the conflict in Ukraine and called for the rapid development and deployment of separate drone forces within the military.

“We are currently creating unmanned systems troops as a separate branch of the military and we need to ensure their rapid and high-quality deployment and development,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying at a meeting on arms development.

Mr Putin told the second day of the gathering that Russia was well aware how Ukraine was dealing with the issue.

“But on the whole, I do not believe we are lagging behind on anything,” he was quoted as saying. “More to the point, it seems to me we are bringing together good experience with a view to creating just such forces.”

The Russian president also stressed developing air defences, which he said had destroyed more than 80,000 targets during the conflict that Russia still calls a special military operation.

“In this respect, a new state armaments programme must ensure the construction of a versatile air defence system capable of operating in any circumstances and efficiently striking air attack weapons, regardless of their type,” he said.

Drones have played a leading role for both sides in the more than three-year-old conflict pitting Moscow against Kyiv. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has since the outbreak of the war in February 2022 stressed the importance of developing a domestic drone development and production industry.