Fight On Ukraine’s Northern Border Sees Elite Troops Poured In From Both Sides

Though Russia has amassed a very large force to try and take Ukraine’s Sumy region, Ukrainian military officials say they have thwarted this summer offensive. Russian sources, meanwhile, claim that the advance is “inevitable.” Sumy is where Ukraine staged its invasion into Russia’s neighboring Kursk region in August 2024. Ukraine still holds territory in Kursk, although a much small area than it had at the height the operation. Now Sumy is at the center of a huge fight that has seen both sides deploy some of their best troops.

Though the Russians have poured 50,000 troops into the effort, the offensive has been halted, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff.

“Currently, the situation is stabilized, the advancement of the enemy has been stopped along the line of Junakivka – Yablunivka – Novomikolaivka – Oleksiyivka – Kindrativka” in Ukraine and inside Kursk, the general staff claimed on Facebook. “Our troops maintain defenses along the designated border, conduct preparation and counter-offensive measures to repel the enemy.”

Ukrainian troops “liberated” the village of Andriyivka, the general staff claimed. “In addition, our units advanced in the area of Oleksíivka, pushing the opponent away from Sumy.”

“Their main strategy,” Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, Ukraine’s top military commander, said of the Russians, is to “wear us down with their numbers.”

“Earlier this month, Ukraine sent elite commando units from its military intelligence directorate, known as GUR, to help stabilize the situation,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Since then, the Russian advances in Sumy have been largely stopped, and Ukraine has clawed back some territory.”

As an indication of Russia’s interest in pushing deep into Sumy, it sent some of its most elite units into the fight, Lt.. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of GUR, told us earlier this month.

“It’s not so important the number indicators or quantity indicators,” Budanov told us in an exclusive interview. “It’s more important to the explanation of what of what’s happening now. Currently, the maximum allied number of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is conducting the offensive in the Sumy direction. For example, the 104th Airborne Division, the 40th Brigade of the Naval Infantry. The 83rd Airborne Brigade. The 155th Naval Infantry Brigade. So the best of the assault units that the Russian Federation has.”

The goal, said Budanov, is “to create a buffer zone on our territory. They are facing crazy resistance from our side. An advance from their side exists. But at this point, I can’t say that it has any strategic meaning. Our units will be relocated to that area soon, and we will see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Russian artillery has crept deeper into Sumy, putting more towns and villages at risk.

This defense of the Sumy region has come at a steep cost, according to Ukrainian troops.

“During the half-year that Ukraine held territory in Russia’s Kursk region, soldiers who fought there said they assumed the military would be preparing strong defensive positions on the Ukrainian side of the border,” the Journal noted. “Instead, after a chaotic and costly retreat from Kursk, they found outdated trenches, with no overhead cover from drones. The soldiers are now digging their own positions under drone fire in some cases.”

Ukrainians also complained that areas that the Russians are now advancing across weren’t mined.

“It’s like they prepared for tank columns, not a battlefield where dozens of drones strike daily,” said one infantry commander named Kyrylo, who fought in Kursk and is now fighting in Sumy. “Every single day a position isn’t ready is a day someone might not come back.”

Russian sources, meanwhile, say that Moscow’s summer offensive has been achieving desired results.

“Units of the Sever Group of Forces improved the tactical situation along the front line” in Sumy, the Russian MoD claimed on Monday. “Losses were inflicted on manpower and hardware of two mechanised brigades, one jaeger brigade, three air assault brigades, three assault regiments of the AFU, two territorial defence brigades, and the Khimera Special Operations Detachment of the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence near Bessalovka, Pisarevka, Novaya Sech, Varachino, Miropolye, Yunakovka, and Sadki.”

“One of the main news items of the past day here was the strikes of Russian barrel artillery on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the village of Peschanoye, which is located close to Sumy itself,” the Russian War Gonzo Telegram channel posited. “It is significant that despite all the efforts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to stop the offensive of the Russian Armed Forces, everyone understands that further advance of Russian troops is inevitable.”

Still, for Russia, this offensive has resulted in the loss of a great deal of troops and equipment.

Time will tell how successful this new Russian push really is. However, no matter how costly its offensive has been, Moscow has far more troops to expend. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Russia was planning new offensives.

The Latest

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the front lines remained largely stagnant, though Ukraine did make a small advance in the east. Here are the key takeaways from the latest Institute for the Study of War Assessment:

• Kursk: Fighting continued in Kursk Oblast on June 29, with no real progress observed by either side.

• Kharkiv: Russian forces continued offensive operations in northern Kharkiv Oblast on June 29 but did not make confirmed advances.

• Luhansk: Russian troops continued to try to advance toward Borova, Kupiansk and Lyman but did not gain any territory.

• Donetsk: Russian forces continued offensive operations in the Novopavlivka, Pokrovsk,  Siversk, Toretsk and Velyka Novosilka directions but did not make any confirmed advances. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Chasiv Yar direction.

• Zaporizhzhia: Russian forces continued offensive operations near Malynivka (east of Hulyaipole) and in western Zaporizhia Oblast on June 29 but did not advance.

• Kherson: Neither Ukrainian nor Russian sources reported any ground activity in the Kherson direction on June 29.

Overnight Sunday, Russia launched the largest aerial attack of the war, firing 477 drones and 60 missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, adding that of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed. At least 10 people on the ground were killed. In addition, a Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed defending against that onslaught, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

“Maksym Ustymenko, born in 1993, was killed after shooting down seven aerial targets,” the Air Force said in a statement, adding that “his aircraft was damaged while he was trying to shoot down the last one, losing altitude and crashing.”

Ustymenko is at least the fourth Ukrainian F-16 pilot to be killed. You can read about the others here.

In addition to using jets to take down Russian drones, Ukraine is also using helicopters, which you can see in the following video.

Russia is now reportedly using Kh-31 (AS-17 Krypton) supersonic anti-ship missiles launched from Su-30 Flanker fighters to attack Ukrainian sea drones. This comes in the wake of GUR’s use of AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles launched from drone boats to down two Flankers.

The Russian The Wrong Side Telegram channel claims that three Ukrainian drone boats were destroyed by Kh-31 missiles fired from a Flanker. The Wrong Side posted video is says shows the Kh-31 supersonic anti-ship missiles hitting drone boats, but we cannot independently verify that.

Using these standoff weapons would allow Russian jets to fire at the drone boats from much safer distances that how they currently operate. However, Budanov on Monday pushed back on the Kyrpton claim.

In addition to saying he had no information that such an attack took place, Budanov told us that using these missiles to attack drone boats would be “stupid and ineffective.”

Usually, Russian jets attack the drone boats with cluster bombs, Bundanov added.

The drone boats “are a very small target with high speed,” he explained

There are unconfirmed claims that Ukraine is now using its large industrial quadcopter drones, nicknamed by the Russians “Baba Yagas” to drop artillery shells on Russian forces.

The Ukrainian “Grom” group, fighting in the Oleshkovsky district of the Kherson region, is using these drones to drop 155mm and 122mm shells, according to Ukrainian milblogger Nikolaev Vanek.

A video Vanek published on Telegram appears to show several instances of drones dropping artillery shells on Russian positions. While we cannot independently verify this, it is quite possible that the heavy lift drones can carry a 155mm shell, which weighs about 100 pounds. 122mm shells weigh about half that much.

Using Baba Yaga drones to deliver artillery shells makes sense because carrying artillery shells would give these heavy-lift drones far more punch they they now have. Though there is high demand for artillery shells, there is also a great stress placed on the gun barrels, which this configuration would mitigate. Drones can also deliver shells far more accurately than howitzers, requiring far fewer munitions.

As drone expert Samuel Bendett told us, while the video appears to show the drones dropping artillery shells, it is unclear whether this is a limited test or something more widely used.

The Ukrainian Meinvest company said it has designed new armor protection for Patriot air defense systems, among Russia’s top targets. The company said it “manufactured and installed a shell weighing more than three tons to cover key elements of the Patriot complex.”

The protection “consists of a steel frame and armored plates,” the company explained. “The structure covers several important system nodes at once: the SAM control station, the radar compartment, and the generator.

“In such war conditions, every minute when the air defense system is operating saves lives. Our protective shells are designed for this very purpose – to ensure that the equipment remains operational even under fire,” said Metinvest CEO Oleksandr Myronenko. “Since the beginning of 2025, Metinvest has begun systematic work on protection for air defense systems. The first shells were installed at air defense facilities in the spring, and since then, the designs have been constantly improved. Each new project is adapted to a specific location and type of equipment.”

This is the company’s latest attempt to provide armor protection for heavily valued high-end air defense systems.

In January, we reported that Metinvest “designed a system using nearly 200 armored steel plates, up to 8 mm thick, that are attached to the sides of a Western-donated air defense system’s command module.”

Ukraine continues to hunt down and attack high-value Russian air defense systems in Crimea. The following video shows a flock of Ukrainian drones blinding a pair of Russian S-400 batteries, scoring hits on a TEL, two 92N2E Grave Stone engagement radars, and two 91N6E Big Bird search radars.

As we have reported often in the past, taking out these systems potentially opens holes in Russia’s air defense overlay of the peninsula and the northwestern Black Sea. This could go a long way to ensuring the survivability of standoff strike weapons, like Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG, and other attacks, such as those by long-range kamikaze drones.

GUR said the attack was launched by its “Ghost” special unit, but did not indicate whether it was from land or sea.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry (MoD) released the first footage of the launch of one of its converted Aeroprakt A-22 light aircraft converted to a drone. Ukraine has used these drones to attack Russian airfields and defense industry targets.

Earlier this month, we wrote that Ukrainian and Russian sources reported that an attack on the Russian Shahed factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone was carried out by an explosive-packed Aeroprakt A-22. What made this different is that the A-22 was towing an explosive-laden glider. As we wrote about at the time, Alabuga was attacked in April 2024 by an A-22.

Jakub Jajcay, who volunteered to fight with Ukraine for six months between 2024 and 2025, offered a dire assessment of the real value of first-person view (FPV) drones on the battlefield. In a scathing article for War On The Rocks titled “I Fought in Ukraine and Here’s Why FPV Drones Kind of Suck,” Jajcay said they were inefficient and hard to operate.

“While first-person view drones are cheap, they are usually not the cheapest option available to commanders,” Jajcay posited. “This is the problem with using them in double-tap strikes or for missions that can be achieved by other systems. One of these drone sorties costs about $500 in materiel. A mortar shell costs less than $100. A munition dropped from a reusable drone, usually also something like a modified mortar shell or 40-millimeter grenade, also costs less than $100.”

“The second reason why these drones rarely do what they were designed to do is technical,” he noted. “They are finicky, unreliable, hard to use, and susceptible to electronic interference. Few first-person-view drones have night-vision capability. Those that do are in short supply and cost twice as much as the base model. In Ukraine, in the winter, it’s dark for 14 hours a day. Wind, rain, snow, and fog all mean a drone cannot fly.”

Jajcay’s conclusions echo some of the concerns a Ukrainian drone commander raised with us in an exclusive interview back in May. He estimated that, for a variety of reasons, only about 30% of radio-controlled FPV drones reach their target.

Still, this is one foreign fighter’s observation and doesn’t take into account that FPV drones have been transformative, striking equipment and personnel and keeping both sides pinned down for a fraction of the cost of other guided weapon systems with standoff capabilities. In addition, as the Ukrainian drone commander pointed out, the majority of losses inflicted on the enemy were by FPV drones.

A video popped up on social media showing an FPV drone apparently making contact with, but not destroying, a vehicle.

A Russian milblogger offered some advice on how to survive the ubiquitous onslaught of Ukrainian surveillance drones.

In a post titled, “How to survive under the ‘bird’: fighting small surveillance UAVs,” the Mad Dogs Telegram channel provided some ways to avoid detection and lambasted methods that do not.

“Where Mavic is, there is death,” Mad Dogs wrote.

In addition, Mad Dogs pointed out that nighttime doesn’t mean the drones can’t operate, but there are limitations using thermal cameras. The bottom line – don’t congregate in groups because “the thermal imager sees a dense group better than a single one.”

As for other things not to do, Mad Dogs said playing dead and hiding in garbage are useless.

“The thermal imager unmistakably shows where the heat is, which means where life is. It works worse than a bad joke,” Mad Dogs said about playing dead. “Masking under trash — only in movies. The person is moving, and that’s the main thing. Even if you covered yourself with cellophane and buried yourself in the mud, you moved your finger and got on the record. The drone operator will calculate you. Quickly.”

Speaking of thermal imaging on drones, two Russian soldiers are seen being hit by FPV drones in a video shot by a thermal camera.

The pro-Ukrainian Russia Volunteer Corps (RDK) claims it obtained tens of gigabytes of secret data on Russia’s strategic electronic warfare (EW) systems by hacking into Russian networks. The data shows serious flaws in those systems.

For 20 years, Russian propaganda molded the myth of its ‘unparalleled’ radio-electronic shield,” RDK stated on Telegram. “Over-the-horizon radars, suppression complexes, ‘secret’ stations – all this turned into a dense layer of disinformation, vultures and paranoia. Today it is in the hands of the RDK. Russian electronic warfare is no longer a ‘hospitality.’ This is an open designer marked: made in a hurry, tested in the fog, vulnerable in the cold. Now Ukraine knows where to beat. What does not work, what heats up, what freezes, what makes noise, and what is just a dummy. And most importantly, it has a full range of necessary information and an understanding of the entire electronic warfare architecture, which will significantly increase defensive capabilities.”

The group released that information on a YouTube video on June 14.

An X user named @ChrisO_wiki offered greater detail about the hack and what was uncovered.

For example, one Russian system, the Tirada-2.3 satellite communications electronic suppression station, has serious flaws,” he posted on X. “It is reported to be extremely sensitive to weather, vibrations, requires complex settings and a stable power supply. The system copes poorly with combat conditions.”

Images have emerged on social media showing that the Russians have begun turning AK-630 naval anti-aircraft guns into permanent firing positions. The AK-630 is a single-turreted, six-barreled 30mm gun with a rate of fire of up to 1,000 rounds per minute. The guns are being removed from ships and deployed in the occupied south.

That’s it for now.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com