KYIV   -   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday denied Russian forces had captured a village in the eastern Sumy region, where the leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic said Moscow’s forces had advanced.

Ramzan Kadyrov said on Sunday that Russian forces had seized the border village of Ryzhivka.

There was no immediate comment from Russia’s defence ministry and a local Ukrainian official denied Kadyrov’s claim.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were “in full control” in Sumy and that Russian sabotage groups operating there had been “destroyed.”

“As for the village of Ryzhivka, the occupier tried to implement a propaganda operation there. As of this morning, the Russian flag in the village was destroyed, and there is no occupant presence,” Zelensky said in a statement on social media. He repeated that fighting in the industrial Donetsk region was “the most difficult” and that Ukrainian forces were doing everything to stabilise their positions there.

Sumy lies on Ukraine’s northern border and has not seen a major Russian ground assault since the beginning of the conflict in 2022.

Kadyrov had said that fighters from his Akhmat battalion “together with servicemen from other Russian units carried out tactical operations and liberated another settlement from the enemy,” he said on social media.

“As a result of large-scale planned offensive actions, the Ukrainian side suffered significant losses and was forced to retreat,” he added.

Yuriy Zarko, the Ukrainian head of the local municipality, denied Ryzhivka had been captured and told state broadcaster Suspilne there were no Russian troops in the village.

Zelensky had warned last month that Russia was amassing troops along the northern border ahead of what might be a new offensive. Authorities began evacuating residents living in some border towns and villages in the Sumy region last month, citing the risk of increased Russian attacks. On May 10, Russia began a major ground operation in the neighbouring Kharkiv region.

 capturing several towns and villages as Kyiv’s forces struggle with manpower and ammunition shortages.

Ukraine has since rushed reinforcements to the area but lost ground to Russia elsewhere on the front, with Zelensky warning on Sunday of difficult battles in the eastern Donetsk region.