Ukraine rejects claim Russian forces entered key central region
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Local residents standing near burnt-out cars after a drone attack in Dnipro on April 16.
PHOTO: AFP
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KYIV – Kyiv’s armed forces rejected as “disinformation” Russia’s claim that its ground troops have crossed into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time, even as prospects for a US-brokered ceasefire remain elusive.
Separately, Ukraine and Russia continued testy exchanges over the details of a planned large prisoner swop agreed to during last week’s talks in Turkey. The exchange is likely to move ahead in the coming days.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on June 8 that units of its 90th tank regiment had crossed the western administrative border of Donetsk into neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk, in what would be a symbolic milestone in their years-long offensive.
In response, Ukraine’s southern defence forces said its troops were “holding their section of the front” while involved in a situation that, while “tense”, is still contained within the Donetsk region.
At issue is the potential advance by Moscow’s land forces into one of Ukraine’s most populous and industrialised areas.
The value of reaching the edge of the region appears mostly symbolic, as Kremlin troops are still more than 140km away from the regional capital of Dnipro, which is also protected by the river of the same name and its system of estuaries.
Yet, creeping further west could fuel the aggressive posture taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is sticking with maximalist goals in Ukraine while resisting US President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring him to the negotiating table.
Dnipro is Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, behind Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, with a pre-war population of about one million people.
Before the start of the war, Dnipropetrovsk was Ukraine’s second most populated region after Donetsk and is the second-largest territory by land mass after the Odesa region. It is home to a major steel industry, coal mining and machine building, and is an important logistics hub for the army.
A few days ago, Kremlin forces were estimated to be about 2km from the provincial border.
The advance takes place at a time Russia has recently seized small amounts of territory in Ukraine’s far north-east. It also brings the war onto the soil of two provinces that so far have not been officially earmarked for annexation by Mr Putin.
The Russian leader has demanded that Kyiv surrender all of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces, which Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but does not fully control. That is in addition to Crimea, which Kremlin forces illegally annexed in 2014.
Russia’s slow-going ground war has picked up speed again.
Kremlin units in recent days have been advancing closer to the regional capital of Sumy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Russia’s renewed focus on the Sumy region was “not a surprise” for the Ukrainian army, which is doing its best to repel the advance.
Sumy’s regional governor said on June 8 that there was no need for an emergency evacuation of residents, according to the public broadcaster Suspilne.
Ukraine’s coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war on June 8 said “everything is moving according to plan” to go ahead with a major prisoner swop
Russia on June 7 suggested Ukraine was to blame for delays in starting the exchange. BLOOMBERG
