The governor of Ukraine's Sumy region on the Russian border said on Monday that Russian forces had captured four villages as part of an attempt to create a "buffer zone" on Ukrainian territory.
Russia's military and Russian military bloggers have in recent days reported captured villages in Sumy, which has come under frequent Russian air strikes for months.
Sumy Region Governor Oleh Hryhorov, writing on Facebook, listed four villages inside the border that he said were now held by Russian forces -- Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka. He said their residents had long been evacuated.
"The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called 'buffer zone,'" he wrote.
Ukrainian forces, he said, "are keeping the situation under control, inflicting precise fire damage on the enemy".
Hryhorov said fighting was continuing around other villages in the area, including Volodymyrivka and Bilovodiv -- two settlements that Russia's Defence Ministry had earlier on Monday said were now held by Moscow's forces.
Russian reports in recent days had said that Moscow's forces had taken control of villages in the region.
Ukraine's State Emergency Services reported that one person was killed on Monday when Russian forces shelled an area of Sumy region west of the captured villages.
Sumy region is opposite Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a large cross-border incursion last August. Moscow says Ukrainian troops have been ousted from Kursk, but Kyiv says its forces are still active there.
Ukraine's popular military blog DeepState had said at the weekend that Russian forces had for the first time "been able to take up positions" along a line of border villages.
A Russian missile strike on the region's main city, also called Sumy, killed 35 people on Palm Sunday last month.
DeepState on Monday said Russian forces had launched attacks further east near Vovchansk in Kharkiv region, where it had launched an earlier incursion in May 2024.
