The Russian Army Broke Through the Ukrainian Defenses as Part of a Major Offensive in Donbass. How Does This Threaten the Armed Forces of Ukraine? And What Is Happening in the Sumy Region, the Annexation of Which Has Been Talked About in the Russian Feder

Russian troops achieved their first major successes in the summer offensive, which began a few weeks ago. They managed to break through the AFU defenses near the Pokrovsk-Konstantinovka highway and capture several villages north of the road. The goal of the offensive (and probably the entire summer campaign of the Russian Armed Forces) is the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomeration. Despite the fact that the Ukrainian defense in this area clearly lac…

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting on 20 May with representatives of Kursk region, supported the claim to the Ukrainian city of Sumy and possibly the entire region of the same name.This is reflected in a recent report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).The move is considered as part of a strategy to annex further Ukrainian territories – possibly also through future negotiations.The post Sumy, Charkiv, Chernigov: Putin wants…

The talks between Kiev and Moscow on 16 May in Istanbul did not lead to any substantial progress, as the two delegations had left on the promise to exchange ceasefire plans, without a timetable. The Russian side would have threatened the Ukrainian negotiators to seize the provinces of Kharkiv and Sumy if Kiev did not agree to withdraw from the four oblasts partially controlled by the Russian army in the east and south of the country.10 For sever…