The defense forces must be prepared for the possibility that Russia will try to repeat the scenario of Kharkiv region in the Sumy direction. Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, said this during a telethon.

“After all, we understand the enemy's cunning, we understand that the enemy continues to keep a certain amount of its forces and means, in particular, in front of these regions. They may be regrouping or building up. And we cannot rule out that the enemy may try to enter our territory, including through the Sumy region, not even to achieve strategic goals, but even to achieve its tactical objectives. Just as we see it now in Kharkiv region,” explained Demchenko.

He also added that for these reasons, Russia may regroup on its own territory along the state border with Ukraine.

“It cannot be said that the enemy has enough forces to take actions to advance too far into the territory of our state. But in order to sow panic so that Ukraine keeps the necessary forces on its side, the enemy can make a move from its territory at any time to expand the area of active hostilities. Of course, our intelligence units, both in the Ministry of Defense and the State Border Guard Service, are actively monitoring what is happening in the Russian Federation. This is so that the military leadership can respond to the challenges and threats posed by the Russian Federation,” said Demchenko.

He also spoke about the situation with the fortifications of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the border area of Sumy region.

“It is impossible to strengthen the border line in terms of engineering because of the shelling conducted by the terrorist country. SBGS, as a part of the Defense Forces, our units in Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv directions have their own defense line to repel enemy attacks. There is no such thing as border patrolling as it used to be. The border with the terrorist country is now being defended militarily,” Demchenko said.

As we reported earlier, Russia is concentrating troops in three areas near the border with Ukraine.