Ukraine denies Putin claim of fresh cross-border attack
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Ukrainian military vehicles in the country’s northern Sumy region travelling along a road close to the border with Russia’s Kursk region in January.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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MOSCOW – Kyiv on Feb 19 rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that his troops had crossed into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region in the first ground attack there since 2022, calling it a “lie”.
Any attempt by Russia to seize more Ukrainian territory in a new part of Ukraine would mark a fresh escalation in the war, just as US President Donald Trump is pushing for a rapid end to the fighting.
“I was told an hour ago that at night fighters of the 810th brigade crossed the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and entered the territory of the enemy,” Mr Putin said in televised remarks, adding that “our troops are advancing along the entire contact line”.
Russian state media reported that the 810th brigade was deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy region.
The DeepState website, with ties to Ukraine’s military, also said that the brigade was fighting in the Kursk region, where Ukraine has been mounting an offensive since August.
Kyiv rejected the claims of a major Russian operation and said it had destroyed a small sabotage group.
“Putin’s information about a large-scale Russian offensive is a lie,” said Mr Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian official tasked with countering disinformation.
He said that a Russian reconnaissance and sabotage unit had tried to cross the border but had been “destroyed”.
“There are currently no Russian troops capable of carrying out a large-scale offensive into the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
“The Russians are trying to spread additional fake news, in particular about some breakthroughs in the Ukrainian defence in the Kursk region and a massive invasion of Ukraine. This is not true,” Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy wrote on Facebook.
He said a Russian unit had tried to advance towards the Ukrainian state border from the Russian village of Nikolayevo-Daryino in an attack launched at around 6am, but it was “unsuccessful”.
Moscow’s troops attacked the Sumy region at the start of their February 2022 offensive but withdrew six weeks later. AFP
