Zelensky rejects claims of Russian military seizing a village in the Sumy region.
Even the mayor of the community, Juri Sarko, denied the takeover of Ryshiwka on public-service television.
Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced on Sunday through online platforms that Russian forces had captured the border village. Kadyrov explained that his Achmat Battalion had worked with other Russian military units to free another settlement from the enemy. The Ukrainian military reportedly suffered significant losses and was forced to retreat, he added.
Back in May, President Zelenskyy predicted that Russian troops would amass at the northern border. Authorities in Sumy warned of potential attacks and began evacuating some residents from border areas.
Russia's offensive in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, bordering Sumy, began in May. Kharkiv's governor, Oleh Syniehubov, revealed that one person was killed and two were injured in a Russian attack on the village of Derhachi on Monday.
Injuries were also reported on the Russian side, according to local authorities on Monday. Four people, including three soldiers and a Rossija-24 cameraman, were hurt in an explosion of a mine in the Russian border region of Belgorod. Governor of the Region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, posted the information via Telegram messenger. A man and two women were injured by Ukrainian attacks in the city of Shebekino, where the power supply was temporarily cut off in certain areas.
The Ukrainian army claimed to have destroyed Russian air defense systems in the Crimean peninsula, according to the General Staff in online media.
Zelenskyy stressed on Monday that the hardest battles were still happening in the eastern region of Donetsk. The Ukrainian army is working tirelessly to defend these areas.
The Russian Defense Ministry informed the public on Monday that they had captured another village in Donetsk. The soldiers were "advancing further into the depths of the enemy's defense and liberating the village of Staromayorskoye," they said. The Ukrainians had reclaimed this village last summer during their counteroffensive.
Ukrainian soldiers stated that it's becoming more challenging to maintain positions along the front line in the western part of Donetsk. A member of a tank crew, Oleksandr, told news agency AFP that the most intense fighting was happening in Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar: "That's where they really want to go, it's their set purpose."
Russian forces allegedly captured 880 square kilometers of land this year, as mentioned by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, including 47 Ukrainian villages and cities.
