The Russian forces could soon focus towards Sumy, the capital of the homonymous region of the northern Ukrainian, where Moscow said he wanted to create a “security band” to protect the Russian one of Kursk, already partially invaded last year by Kiev’s troops.
The Wall Street Journal writes that 50,000 Russian soldiers were lined up no more than 19 kilometers from the city, that a ten days ago Vladimir Putin had not excluded that he could attack.
The Russian forces in the region would be in proportion to three to one compared to the Ukrainian defenders, the WSJ points out. Ten days ago, speaking at the Economic Forum of St. Petersburg in front of an international audience, the Russian president had reiterated that he wanted to create a safety strip in Ukrainian territory with a depth “between 10 and 12 kilometers “https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/mondo/2025/07/01/in-ukraine-putin-a-sumy-000-russi-porte-della-citta-41621450-F986-4ea-A105-83c7e7e2d8c0/.” Regional capital – added Putin -.
We do not have this goal of conquering Sumy, but in the beginning I do not exclude it “.
Meanwhile, the German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, who accused Putin of not wanting no negotiated peace but only “a” capitulation “of Ukraine, has been surprising in Kiev.
The head of the Kremlin “wants to go on, for a series of reasons,” Antonio Tajani told his part. In an interview with the ‘Morning News’ program of Canale 5, the Italian Foreign Minister stressed that he had always been convinced that “a fire would not be reached before the end of this year” and therefore it is “inevitable” to continue to exacerbate the penalties against Moscow.
In contrast, Donald Trump, according to which the current low oil prices will be enough to push Putin at least to a respite. “I think we will have a fire because the oil prices are low,” said the US president, mentioned by Bloomberg. Without, however, mention a few hours earlier by the republican senator Lindsay Graham, according to which Trump himself said to his party companions to “move” on the law to impose new sanctions against Russia. The relative law cited by Graham provides, among other things, to impose 500% duties to the countries that continue to import oil from Russia, therefore, therefore, China and India. The senator, considered very close to the Tycoon, told ABC that he asked him to proceed during a golf match. “We will approve the law after the July break and then the president will decide whether to sign it,” added Graham.
The Kremlin replied that he took note of Graham’s words, but did not unbalance himself. “The positions of the republican senator – said the spokesman Dmitry Peskov – are well known, to us and the whole world. Graham belongs to a group of Russian inveterate, and if it had been for him these penalties would have been imposed for a long time. This would have helped a solution? This is a question for those who promote such actions”.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Denis Shmyhal, in the meantime, said that President Volodymyr Zelensky has communicated to him the decision to personally participate in the reconstruction conference in Rome, scheduled for 10 and 11 July.
Finally, in Pyongyang, the images of the leader Kim Jong-a naked and in tears on the coffin of one of the North Korean soldiers who fell, fighting alongside the Russian troops to reject the Ukrainian invaders from the Kursk region, were spread. The episode took place during a commemorative event for the first anniversary of the signature of the strategic partnership treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang, which was attended by a Russian delegation led by the Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova. State media have also broadcast Kim’s video that approves military plans for the Kursk region.
Two weeks ago the North Korean leader decided to send 1,000 fans and 5,000 military workers to the Russian region to contribute to the reconstruction of the area where heavy fights were held.