Ukrainian forces have advanced into the border districts of the northern Sumy region, an area where Russian troops have been trying for months to gain a foothold, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Zelensky, speaking in his late-night video address on Sunday, also quoted Ukraine's commander-in-chief as saying that Moscow's forces had suffered significant losses in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, along a 1,000 km (620 mile) front line.
Zelensky was speaking after a week of Russian statements highlighting what Moscow described as gains in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russian troops are engaged in a slow advance across eastern Ukraine, with almost daily announcements from captured villages.
Moscow has annexed four regions that it has partially occupied – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – but not Dnipropetrovsk, where it has so far said it has taken a series of villages along its administrative border.
“There are good results in the border areas of the Sumy region,” Zelensky said, citing Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky. “Our units continue to advance towards the Ukrainian border.”
