“Villages are wiped off the map”. What's going on in Sumy region and what fighting in Belgorod region has to do with it

“It's no exaggeration to say that since last week, Sumy region has been experiencing perhaps the most difficult times since April 2022, when the rashists left the region,” said Dmytro Lantushenko, head of the public relations service of the 117th Territorial Defense Brigade and former deputy of the Sumy City Council.

“Russians are wiping out villages in the Sumy region…” wrote the local edition of Kordon.Media, publishing photos of the bombed houses of residents of the Velyka Pysarivka community.

Read in the article by hromadske what is currently happening in the Sumy region, how the evacuation is going, and what is the reason for the occupiers' activation.

Shelling

Vadym Mysnyk, spokesperson for the North Operational Command, noted that the number of attacks in the Sumy region has been increasing since the beginning of last week. Currently, the occupiers carry out 70 to 100 attacks per day.

“The Russians are using the entire arsenal along the border of the Sumy region. From artillery, mortars, cannons, and MLRS to aircraft — FPV, Shahed, and Lancet drones. They are dropping unguided missiles from helicopters and bombs from airplanes,” Mysnyk told Ukrinform.

The spokesperson added that the shelling is damaging civilian and critical infrastructure, administrative and residential buildings. The occupiers are also destroying bridges and roads, which complicates the evacuation of civilians.

Dmytro Lantushenko, a spokesperson for the 117th Territorial Defense Brigade, attributed the increased shelling of the Sumy region to raids by Russian volunteers who are fighting on the side of Ukraine, into the territory of the Russian Federation.

“The number of strikes, hits, and shelling has increased significantly. This is especially true of the border areas, which are the epicenter of these battalions' activities.

We understand that active hostilities are taking place there. Therefore, the Sumy region is the area that is actively involved in the liberation of Russia today,” Lantushenko explained in a comment to Radio Liberty.

At the same time, local authorities call on residents of the Sumy region not to succumb to panic and not to believe in fakes about a possible Russian offensive in the region.

Saboteurs

The Sumy region is now perhaps the most active area where Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups are recorded, Andrii Demchenko, a spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service, told hromadske. According to him, the activities of subversive reconnaissance groups are also observed in the Kharkiv region, while in the Chernihiv region, they have been less active recently.

“Groups of saboteurs who tried to enter from the territory of Russia were detected in the Sumy region. Moreover, it was three groups in one day in different directions. We have never recorded such activity in one day before,” he commented on the cases when sabotage and reconnaissance groups entered on March 16.

The border guard spokesperson believes that the threat from Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups is well understood by Ukrainian defenders. That is why they use technical means to control the area, including drones. As soon as such hostile groups are detected, they are immediately fired upon.

In addition to small arms, more powerful weapons and artillery are being used. Anti-sabotage reserves are being deployed. The task of the defenders is to drive such groups beyond the state border and inflict maximum losses on the enemy.

Evacuation

For the sixth day in a row, the evacuations from the border settlements in the Okhtyrka district of the Sumy region have been underway due to intensified Russian shelling. As of March 15, it was known that all residents of 22 border settlements in three districts had left.

The head of the Sumy Regional State Administration Volodymyr Artiukhreported that Velyka Pysarivka suffers the most from shelling. The day before, the occupiers destroyed the center of the village. On March 13, evacuations began there — 285 people were evacuated, including 26 children.

The spokesperson for the North Operational Command noted that it is currently impossible to reach some villages in the Sumy region to evacuate civilians.

“Due to the density of shelling, evacuation groups cannot do this even without transport, on foot. Mostly elderly people remain in the villages, they are staying in basements. Whenever possible, we deliver food and necessary things there,” the spokesperson said in a comment to Ukrinform.

In the Velyka Pysarivka community, the National Police and rescuers of the State Emergency Service were involved in the evacuation teams. In the settlements within the 5-kilometer border zone, the military personnel are also helping with the evacuation of civilians. The head of the community, Liudmila Biriukova told Suspilne that about 20 people remain in the village of Popivka, which has no signal reception. Before the war, there were about 400 people there.

“People did not listen when there was an order to evacuate from the five-kilometer zone. Now we do not have access to these people, they are forced to get out by their own transport or on foot. Then they are evacuated by the State Emergency Service and the police. There are evacuation rides every day,” Biriukova said.

The head of the community says that there is no connection with Popivka now, and the military personnel tell them information about the village. People are leaving the village via field roads. Evacuation is also complicated in the villages of Luhivka and Oleksandrivka, where the Defense Forces are helping to evacuate people.

The head of Ryzhivka village council told to Kordon.Media that as of March 18, seven residents in the village had not yet been evacuated.

“They are all pensioners. One family, an elderly couple, wants to leave. But today volunteers and the authorities are not allowed there because of the security situation. Therefore, it is impossible to evacuate these people. In total, the volunteers evacuated 140 residents from the village,” the newspaper reports.

The Sumy Regional Administration noted that the authorities are currently developing a plan to pay compensation for the destroyed houses in the community and plan to quickly restore facilities that are not critically damaged.

“Together with Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, we have already worked out measures to evacuate children and the elderly to the western regions. This plan is already coming into effect. People have agreed to move to safer places,” said Volodymyr Artiukh.

Law enforcers urge residents of the settlements affected by shelling to move to safer places without delay. If you need help with evacuation or anything else, please call 102.