Andrii Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, reported at a briefing that while sabotage activity has decreased in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast, several Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups are uncovered weekly in the adjacent Sumy Oblast. This announcement was made at the Ukraine-Ukrinform Media Center on May 2.

Russian troops retreated from the northern provinces of Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy a month into the full-scale invasion after their defeat in the Battle for Kyiv in 2022, and from Kharkiv Oblast’s north in fall 2022. However, after their retreat, the Russian forces continued cross-border firearm, artillery, and air attacks on border communities of Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv oblasts, with occasional infiltrations of saboteurs.

Andrii Demchenko noted that the northern border with Russia is marked by daily shelling of Ukrainian territory, primarily using artillery, drones, and aviation, with most attacks recently concentrated in Kharkiv Oblast, and fewer in Sumy and Chernihiv Oblasts.