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Russia Invented 12 “Captured” Settlements as Its Sumy Push Stalls
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Russian forces have claimed the capture of 12 settlements in Ukraine’s Sumy region since the beginning of 2026, but none of those reports accurately reflect the situation on the ground, according to Vadym Karpiak, spokesperson for Ukraine’s 8th Air Assault Corps.
“We calculated that this year, essentially from January through September, the Russians reported capturing 12 settlements in the Sumy region within the 8th Corps’ area of responsibility. And all of it is false. They cannot advance,” Karpiak said on September 9.
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Russian troops continue launching assaults in the Northern Slobozhanshchyna sector, but Ukrainian forces have repeatedly stopped them, he said.
With Moscow struggling to make progress on the ground, Russian forces are increasingly relying on shelling and long-range strikes against civilian infrastructure.
“What we are seeing is the result of the Russians failing to advance in the Northern Slobozhanshchyna direction, and therefore beginning to terrorize the civilian population even more with shelling and long-range strikes,” Karpiak stated.
Ukrainian troops have also improved their positions in several areas, although the corps is withholding details while operations remain underway.
Karpiak said Russian military maps in some sectors are dramatically disconnected from actual control on the battlefield, with discrepancies reaching eight to 10 kilometers.
That gap can create problems even for Russian troops themselves.
Areas marked on Russian maps as being under Moscow’s control may in reality remain contested or effectively function as gray zones where Ukrainian forces can still operate and strike Russian units.
Karpiak suggested Russian commanders may be under pressure to report that assigned objectives have been completed regardless of what has actually happened on the ground.
“The fact that one or two people slipped through somewhere and took a photo with a Russian flag does not mean that the settlement is under Russian control,” he said.
He pointed to a recent case in which Russian troops entered a settlement, photographed themselves with a flag and were subsequently captured by a Ukrainian assault group operating in the same area.
Such missions, Karpiak said, may sometimes be conducted specifically to produce visual evidence for Russian military reporting rather than establish lasting territorial control.
The Russian offensive is also being constrained by mounting manpower problems, according to the Ukrainian officer.
Russia is no longer replenishing personnel at the same rate it managed last year, making it increasingly difficult to replace battlefield losses and sustain continued offensive operations.
“Accordingly, this is also why they cannot advance, because they do not have enough people to replace those we are taking out. The logical conclusion is that they will increase long-range strikes because they cannot achieve anything on the ground,” Karpiak said.
Earlier, Russian propaganda outlets claimed Moscow’s forces had captured the village of Mohrytsia in Ukraine’s Sumy region, only for Ukrainian soldiers holding the settlement to respond with a video filmed directly from one of its streets.
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