Shortly after Russian forces invaded the country on February 24 in what President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation,” they crossed the border into Sumy, fighting in the city streets as they marched on the capital, Kyiv. Dmytro Zhivitskyi, head of Sumy’s regional and military administration, said there were almost no regular troops at the time, but locals took whatever weapons they could find, such as Molotov cocktails. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “According to the Russians, they had plans (to take over Sumy) in three to five days,” Zhivitskyi told Reuters in Sumy on Thursday. “Obviously they knew that in the territory of the Sumy region at that time there were almost no regular (military) troops and there was only territorial defense.” Ukrainian forces regained control of the northeastern region on April 8, Zhivitskyi said. Members of the Territorial Defense Force watch a training simulation for a raid on a building occupied by enemy forces as they prepare for a new attack, in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on an abandoned building in Sumy, Ukraine, April 15, 2022. REUTERS / Zoh read more “I think the possibility of a (new) attack is high. They are determined and we understand that the number of people in Russia is about 150 million,” he said. “Until the tanks and the people are finished, they will continue to send people here.” The Russian invasion has left a mark of death and destruction that has provoked worldwide condemnation and raised concerns about Putin’s broader ambitions. Russia has denied allegations that its troops committed war crimes in Ukraine as false news. Western countries say Russia is now stepping up and supplying troops for an intensive offensive in eastern Ukraine. It is unclear whether the Kremlin plans to attack Sumy again. But the local territorial defense force is preparing, with members saying the volunteer militia now numbers more than 1,000. Local authorities did not say how many regular soldiers were in Sumy. Ihor Hannenko, a former youth worker who became a member of the territorial defense, took part in the first day of the war. On Friday, Hannenko and several members of his brigade conducted communication exercises, conducting training simulations for a raid on an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. “There were many cases when we went on a mission and they called us and told us that there were no Russian columns there because someone had already destroyed them,” said the 28-year-old. “We did not even know who did it.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Writes Elizabeth Piper in Kyiv. Edited by Hugh Lawson Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
