Sumy in northern Ukraine is preparing for fresh attacks though Russian forces have pulled back from that part of the country, withdrawing from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, to focus their assault on the east through the breakaway Donbas region, which has seen increased troop activity in the past couple of days.

Dmytro Zhivitskyi, head of Sumy’s regional defence forces noted how the Russians moved in when President Vladimir Putin first sent troops on February 24. 

He told Reuters there’d been fighting on Sumy streets when invading forces tried to move towards the capital Kyiv. Citizens had to take up arms, making use of Molotov cocktails, Zhivitskyi recounted. 

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Ukrainian forces regained control of Sumy on April 8, he added. 

Sumy’s preparations come amid airstrikes on Kyiv and Lviv, the latter being a western city in Ukraine. Russia has now focused its attacks on the east, entering through the Donbas region, while there is another push from the south through the besieged Azov Sea port city Mariupol. 

There have been repeated calls for the city to surrender, but Ukraine has refused. 

Russia’s attacks on the Ukraine cities also come after its flagship Moskva sank in the Black Sea. Ukrainians claimed their missile strikes took down the Russian battleship which gained notoriety after opponent soldiers on Snake Island told it to “go f**k” itself. 

While Russia was regrouping in the east, Chechen chief Ramazan Kadyrov, who describes himself as Putin’s foot soldier, stated that Russia intended to take all cities after its initial eastward push. This included the capital Kyiv. 

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With the Butcher of Syria, Aleksandr Dvornikov, now leading the operations in Ukraine, the war-torn nation is likely to see more airstrikes, which along with the use of chemical weapons, has been Dvornikov’s style from the time he helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stymy the civil war.