Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a time undoubtedly orchestrated, on May 20, the meeting with officials from the Kursk region tried to justify renewed efforts to grasp the city of Sumy and potentially annex the Sumy region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The city of Sumy is only 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border with Ukraine, and a buffer zone encompassing this would hinder kyiv’s ability to launch tube artillery or tactical strikes on Russian territory.
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According to the ISW report, the chief of Glughkovsky Raion, Pavel Zolotarev, asked that Russia creates a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory during the meeting.
In response, Putin asked what depth this stamp should be to which Zolotarev replied that Russia should seize “at least Sumy (city)” and implicitly Russia “should be greater”.
Kursk’s acting regional governor, Alexander Khinshtein later supported the idea, writing on Telegram that his grandfather was from the Sumy region, so “this land is not unrelated to (United States)”.
The ISW noted that the Russian negotiation team also threatened to seize the Sumy Oblast during the May 16 talks with Ukraine in Istanbul.
“The Kremlin probably organized the interaction at the May 20 meeting in order to translate Putin as an effective leader in wartime”, while the masking of Military failures ISW wrote, before adding that this could be part of a wider plan to claim more Ukrainian land thanks to future negotiations.
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Putin’s visit marked her first at the Kursk Oblast since Russia won the military victory in the region on April 26. Despite this, the Ukrainian forces would have always maintained limited positions on Russian soil. The general staff of Ukraine confirmed on May 21 that combat operations in this Russian region continued.
Putin also discussed additional federal support and increased Kursk’s demining operations with Khinshtein.
Observers and military analysts, however, doubt Russia have the capacity to take Sumy in the short term. Ukrainian analyst Kostantyn Mashovets said that the 18th and 72nd Russian motorized rifle divisions, as well as the 83th distinct airborne brigade, operate in the direction of Sumy. He also noted that up to five rifle regiments mobilized had been deployed in the region.
The ISW has evaluated that these forces are insufficient for an assault against Sumy, a city with a pre -war population of 256,000. Since 2022, Russia has failed to capture a Ukrainian city of comparable size, and even the seizure of Lysychansk – a smaller city – required months of grinding combat.
“Russian forces have since struggled to grasp much smaller colonies … despite the use of a greater number of forces,” wrote Isw.
Ukrainian officials have also repeatedly expressed doubt that Russia could launch an effective offensive against Sumy, stressing that such an attempt would probably prove to be expensive and slow.
In early April, the commander -in -chief of the Ukraine Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, said that Russia had actually started a new offensive targeting the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv.
He said Russia seeks to establish a buffer area along the northern border of Ukraine, including in the Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
