Kyiv — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, but added that Kyiv had taken steps to prevent Moscow from conducting a large-scale offensive there.
The build-up comes as Russia appears to be gearing up for a summer offensive in Ukraine while Kyiv waits for Moscow to present a memorandum laying out its conditions to proceed with ceasefire talks.
Sumy lies across the border from Russia’s Kursk region where Ukraine previously seized and held a pocket of land for months, before being almost fully pushed out last month, though it says it still holds some areas there.
“Their largest, strongest forces are currently on the Kursk front,” Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday. “To push our troops out of the Kursk region and to prepare offensive actions against the Sumy region.”
Putin has said he wants a “buffer zone” along Russia's border with Ukraine. Zelensky said he believed Russia wanted a buffer zone of about 10km.
Russia has captured at least four border villages in the region recently, and has been creeping slowly forwards over the past several weeks on parts of the front line in eastern Ukraine near the city of Kostyantynivka.
However, Zelensky said that the Russians had been pushed back in that area by 4km over two days.
Ukraine and Russia swapped 1,000 captives each after a meeting of the two countries’ delegations in Istanbul nearly two weeks ago, which failed to produce a ceasefire sought by Ukraine, the US and Europe.
Zelensky said that he viewed Turkey, the Vatican and Switzerland as the most realistic venues for further negotiations with Russia. He said interest in hosting talks had also been expressed by Malta, as well as unspecified African nations.
Reuters previously reported that Moscow did not see the Vatican as a serious venue for talks.
Zelensky said that he would attend the next Group of 7 (G7) summit after being invited by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose country currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency. He added that he would be likely to take part in the next EU summit.
Regarding Ukraine’s domestic arms production, Zelensky said he wanted $30bn to fully fund the available capacity of the rapidly expanding sector.
Later on Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a media address with Zelensky that Germany and Ukraine aimed to jointly develop the industrial production of long-range missiles.
Merz said his government would not impose any range limits on the missiles, which could be produced in Ukraine and Germany.
“We want to enable long-range weapons, we also want to enable joint production, and we will not speak about details publicly but will intensify co-operation,” he said in the joint news conference in Berlin.
Zelensky said the two leaders had agreed to co-operate in production of weapons in Ukraine, including drones.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the production plan showed Germany was already a participant in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Lavrov also said Russia has proposed holding the next round of direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2.
Update: May 28 2025
This story has been updated with new information.
Reuters
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