“Russian Forces Capture Key Village in Sumy Amid Escalating Evacuations in Ukraine”

On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the seizure of another village in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, prompting local officials to issue new evacuation orders due to recent deadly strikes on civilian areas.

The village of Marine, situated less than 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Russian border, is located on a highway that connects Sumy with the Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region. This marks the farthest advance of Russian forces in Sumy since they captured several border villages in March and April.

The Defense Ministry stated this month that its troops are establishing a «buffer zone» along the Sumy-Kursk frontier, a plan initially proposed by President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the region earlier this year.

This initiative followed remarks from Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who informed Putin that the Kursk area had been «fully liberated» with assistance from North Korean troops. Ukrainian forces had previously taken control of portions of the border region after a surprise attack in August.

Following the declaration of Marine’s capture, Oleh Hryhorov, the Governor of the Sumy region, mentioned that nearly 56,000 of the more than 86,000 residents affected by mandatory evacuation orders had already been relocated.

The recent evacuations were triggered by a Russian drone attack on a minibus in Bilopilia, a town in the Sumy region, on Saturday, which resulted in the deaths of nine individuals and injuries to seven others.

On Friday, direct peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine resumed in Turkey. A source knowledgeable about the discussions told AFP that Moscow had issued threats regarding the seizure of Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions, despite having made no official territorial claims on either region previously.