{"id":463440,"date":"2025-12-22T02:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T02:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/463440\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T02:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T02:32:11","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-kyivs-forces-battle-russian-push-to-break-through-in-sumy-region-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/463440\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv\u2019s forces battle Russian push to break through in Sumy region | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    The Ukrainian army was battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region<\/strong>, it said on Sunday, after reports that Moscow forcibly moved 50 people from a border village there. That marks a renewed Russian advance in the part of the region largely spared from intense ground fighting since Ukraine regained land there in a 2022 counteroffensive. \u201cFighting is currently ongoing in the village of Grabovske,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s joint taskforce said, adding the troops were \u201cmaking efforts to drive the occupiers back into Russian territory\u201d. It has also refuted media reports saying Moscow\u2019s troops were in the neighbouring Ryasne village. Earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian rights ombudsman said Russian troops forcibly moved about 50 people from Grabovske to Russia. There was no official comment from Russia. On Saturday, the Russian army said it had captured the village of Vysoke, a short distance from Grabovske.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    US and Ukrainian envoys issued a joint statement on Sunday saying talks in Miami had been \u201cproductive and constructive\u201d<\/a> but did not announce any apparent breakthrough<\/strong> in efforts to end the Russian invasion. \u201cOver the last three days in Florida, the Ukrainian delegation held a series of productive and constructive meetings with American and European partners,\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukraine\u2019s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said in separate statements on X on Sunday. Witkoff posted: \u201cOur shared priority is to stop the killing, ensure guaranteed security and create conditions for Ukraine\u2019s recovery, stability and long-term prosperity. Peace must be not only a cessation of hostilities, but also a dignified foundation for a stable future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US were on the cards. <\/strong>Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a day earlier that Washington had mooted the trilateral format, which would mark Moscow and Kyiv\u2019s first face-to-face negotiations in half a year, but the Ukrainian president expressed scepticism that they would lead to progress. Russian news agencies reported Vladimir Putin\u2019s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, as telling reporters: \u201cAt present, no one has seriously discussed this initiative, and to my knowledge it is not in preparation.\u201d Russian representatives have also been in southern Florida for discussions with the US over Ukraine, with a Kremlin envoy saying on Saturday that the talks had been pressing on \u201cconstructively\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Keir Starmer discussed efforts to achieve a \u201cjust and lasting end\u201d to the war in a Sunday call with Donald Trump<\/strong>, the British prime minister\u2019s office said in a statement after the Florida talks. \u201cThe two leaders began by reflecting on the war in Ukraine,\u201d Starmer\u2019s office said in a readout of the call, adding they had discussed the work of the so-called \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d countries that have pledged to support Kyiv.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Russia has renewed its criticism<\/a> of efforts by Europe and Ukraine to amend US proposals to end the war in Ukraine<\/strong>, saying they did not improve prospects for peace. Rory Carroll reports<\/a> that Putin aide Ushakov told reporters on Sunday that the proposed tweaks to Washington\u2019s plan could prolong the conflict. \u201cI am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,\u201d Ushakov said. He added that he had not seen the exact proposals and that his criticism was \u201cnot a forecast\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    US intelligence reports continue to warn that Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe<\/strong> that belonged to the former Soviet empire, Reuters reported six sources familiar with intelligence as saying, even as negotiators seek an end to the war that would leave Russia with far less territory. The most recent of the reports dates from late September, one of the sources said. The intelligence contradicts the Russian leader\u2019s denials that he is a threat to Europe. \u201cThe intelligence has always been that Putin wants more,\u201d Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the House intelligence committee, told Reuters. \u201cThe Europeans are convinced of it. The Poles are absolutely convinced of it. The Baltics think they\u2019re first.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ukrainian army was battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region, it said on Sunday, after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":463441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-463440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115760880106972968","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}