Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that after several months of fierce fighting, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have stopped the Russian offensive in northeastern Ukraine, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
“As of today, we can state that the Russian offensive operation in the Sumy region has been completely thwarted by our forces“, the president wrote on the social network “Telegram“ after consultations with the army leadership, including the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Alexander Sirsky.
“Fighting in the border areas continues, but the Russian group is no longer able to attack“, Zelensky claims.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian army should seize a buffer zone of about 10 kilometers in the Ukrainian Sumy region on the border.
According to Ukrainian military observers, Russian troops continue to control over 200 square kilometers in the Sumy region.
Zelensky said last night that many of the details of security guarantees for his country were already on paper, adding that foreign troops on the ground would signal political support for Kiev, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
US special envoy Keith Kellogg and national security advisers from Britain, Germany, France and Italy arrived in Kiev, Ukrainian officials said.
Zelensky, writing later about his meetings with advisers on the Telegram messaging app, called for speeding up work on finalizing the security guarantees, given the incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace earlier this week.
“Russia not only shows no desire to end the war, but is also engaging in escalation, with real threats to Europe, by launching its drones into Poland,” he wrote. “Therefore, we must complete the work on drafting the security guarantees as quickly as possible,” he added.
The participants in the meetings, Zelensky said, discussed their experience in developing NATO’s common defense, and Ukraine is proposing “jointly intercepting all Russian targets.”