Ukraine war live: Zelensky claims his troops pushing back Putin’s forces in Sumy

Ukraine’s military has claimed that Russian troop losses have reached one million.

Of those million soldiers either killed or wounded, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said well over half of those casualties – more than 628,000 -occurred in the last year and a half.

“This is the price the enemy pays for unleashing a bloody war in Ukraine,” the armed forces said.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were gradually pushing Russian forces out of the border Sumy region, where Moscow was able to establish a foothold in recent weeks.

Russian forces have been moving into Sumy region since April when Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin called for the creation of a buffer zone following the eviction of Ukrainian troops from Russia’s western Kursk region.

Both Russian and Ukrainian reports indicate that Russian forces have seized a series of villages in Sumy, which has for many months also come under heavy Russian air attacks. And Russian reports said Moscow’s troops were advancing in the area.

“Our units in Sumy region are gradually pushing back the occupiers,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “I thank you! Thanks to every soldier, sergeant and officer for this result.”

The Ukrainian president provided no further details and offered no proof of Ukrainian advances in the area.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said there had been a concentration of Russian men and equipment in the Sumy region because of months of military operations across the border in Kursk region. He advised caution to establish details of the situation on the ground.

“I think the military has the situation under control and I think we shall see a different picture in the coming days,” Mr Podolyak told Ukrainian TV Channel 24.

Russia has redeployed dozens of its long-range bombers to bases in the Far East following Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web attack earlier this month.

The Kyiv Independent, citing independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, said all Tu-160 bombers had been evacuated from Belaya airfield in Irkutsk Oblast and Olenya airfield in Murmansk Oblast.

Ukraine’s drone strike attack targeted Russian planes at five air bases.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will attend the G7 summit in Canada next week and hopes to meet Donald Trump there.

Mr Zelensky told a news briefing that he hopes to discuss continued support for Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and future financing for Kyiv’s reconstruction efforts during the summit.

Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky last met at the Vatican in April, ahead of the funeral of Pope Francis.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said that drones had played a major role in the conflict in Ukraine and called for the rapid development and deployment of separate drone forces within the military.

“We are currently creating unmanned systems troops as a separate branch of the military and we need to ensure their rapid and high-quality deployment and development,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying at a meeting on arms development.

Mr Putin told the second day of the gathering that Russia was well aware how Ukraine was dealing with the issue.

“But on the whole, I do not believe we are lagging behind on anything,” he was quoted as saying. “More to the point, it seems to me we are bringing together good experience with a view to creating just such forces.”

The Russian president also stressed developing air defences, which he said had destroyed more than 80,000 targets during the conflict that Russia still calls a special military operation.

“In this respect, a new state armaments programme must ensure the construction of a versatile air defence system capable of operating in any circumstances and efficiently striking air attack weapons, regardless of their type,” he said.

Drones have played a leading role for both sides in the more than three-year-old conflict pitting Moscow against Kyiv. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has since the outbreak of the war in February 2022 stressed the importance of developing a domestic drone development and production industry.