Russia ‘readies for attack on Sumy with 67,000 troops at border’ – The Times – 10.04.25
- Michael Julien
- Apr 10
- 5 min read
President Zelensky also accused Moscow of dragging China into its war by recruiting Chinese citizens to fight in its army, as it prepares for a spring offensive.
Moscow has positioned more than 67,000 troops on Ukraine’s northern border in preparation for an attack on the city of Sumy, President Zelensky has said.
With ceasefire talks ongoing, Russia has begun a spring offensive on multiple fronts — with the number of daily military operations doubling over the past week, Ukraine had said.
Having recaptured much of Kursk region, Russia is looking to strike at Sumy just over the border.
“Today, more than 67,000 Russian soldiers are located in the Kursk direction. Russia completed the relocation for an attack in the Sumy direction,” Zelensky said. “There are many attacks there.
Most attacks, on average, are in that direction.”
He added that a small contingent of Ukrainian forces active in Belgorod — a Russian region adjacent to Kursk — were working to prevent Moscow from forming a concentration of troops with which to launch an assault on Sumy, as well as Kharkiv to the southeast.
Russian troops invaded the Sumy region during the early weeks of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 but failed to take the city, which lies about 20 miles from the border. Within six weeks its forces had been driven out of the entire region.
On Wednesday, Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said an offensive on the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv had “already begun”.
“Despite all the ongoing negotiations, we are only seeing an increase in the intensity of offensive actions,” Syrsky told Left Bank, an Ukrainian news outlet.
Zelensky also said Russia was dragging China into its war after he alleged Moscow had recruited more than 150 Chinese citizens to fight for its army.
“This is the second mistake for Russia,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday. “The first was North Korea. They drag other countries into war. I believe that they are now dragging China into this war.”
He added that Ukraine was ready to exchange two Chinese prisoners of war for captured Ukrainian soldiers, and was seeking to buy a “large” package of weapons from the US. “We were ready to find $30 billion or $50 billion” for the purchase, he said.
On Tuesday Ukraine had demanded answers from Beijing after at least two Chinese citizens were taken prisoner by Kyiv’s forces while fighting alongside Russian troops in the eastern Donetsk region.
China said on Wednesday that it was seeking to clarify the Ukrainian report. However, it described Zelensky’s claim that many more Chinese citizens were on the battlefield alongside Russian troops as “groundless”.
“Ukraine should correctly view China’s efforts and constructive role in seeking a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis,” the Chinese foreign ministry said, adding: “The Chinese government has always asked its citizens to stay away from areas of armed conflict [and] avoid involvement in armed conflicts in any form.”
China’s peace proposal, which it put forward in 2023, did not demand a full Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.
Zelensky also posted a video showing one of the purported Chinese fighters being questioned. The unnamed man’s hands were bound and he was wearing military fatigues. He mimed how he had tried to shoot down a drone.
“Russia’s involvement in this war in Europe of China, directly or indirectly, is a clear signal that [President] Putin is going to do anything but end the war,” Zelensky added. “This definitely requires a reaction. A reaction from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who wants peace.”
At least one of the Chinese prisoners complained that he had been mistreated by the Russian troops in his trench, a military source said. “He came to our positions at night and surrendered. The Russians had f***ed him up and didn’t even let him eat.” After being fed, the Chinese prisoner began to discuss political topics, the source said.
The Times has seen documents found on one of those captured, a 33-year-old man from Henan province in eastern China. Among them was a Russian military contract that he had signed, committing him to a year’s service as a private.
Other documents showed that he arrived at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow on February 8, having applied for a visa in China two weeks earlier. On February 17, he registered for a tax code and social security number. It was unclear when he signed the military contract but his visa was for 16 days.
“This is yet another country providing military support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “Another after Iran and after North Korean troops.” He said the involvement of Chinese fighters was potentially more serious because North Korean forces have only fought inside Russia against Ukrainian troops who seized parts of the western Kursk region.
However, Andriy Kovalenko, a member of Ukraine’s national security council, called the captured Chinese fighters “military mercenaries”. Scores of Chinese men are known to have fought for Russia in Ukraine as volunteers or mercenaries. There is no evidence so far, however, that they were ordered into Ukraine by Beijing.
Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said he had summoned the Chinese chargé d’affaires. “Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia’s invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China’s declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing’s credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN security council,” he wrote on X.
Russia has not commented. However, Igor Korotchenko, a Russian defence analyst who is close to the Kremlin, accused Zelensky of “disinformation” and attempting to use “confrontation” between Beijing and Washington to Kyiv’s advantage.
Many of the Chinese fighters in Ukraine have recorded their journeys on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. They are believed to be paid about £2,000 a month. One mercenary, who identified himself as Zhou Ziqiang, said: “The Russians don’t see us as human beings. We fight like a suicide squad, and they don’t care if we die or get hurt.”
Beijing has not condemned Russia’s invasion and Putin and President Xi signed a “no limits” agreement shortly before the Kremlin sent tanks into Ukraine in 2022.
Sir Keir Starmer told MPs that the British government was taking advice from defence and intelligence agencies to “make sure that we’ve got to the bottom of what we actually think has happened here”.
Western officials said they had not seen evidence of Chinese “state sponsorship” of the fighters mentioned by Zelensky. One compared their presence on the battlefield to British citizens fighting for Ukraine of their own accord, without the government’s backing.
The US State Department spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, said Washington was aware of the “disturbing” reports on Tuesday. Bruce added that China was a “major enabler” of Russia’s war, citing its provision of dual-use goods, which could have military or civilian purposes.
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By Marc Bennetts and Tom Ball Kyiv and Kateryna Malofieieva, Kyiv
One of the Chinese men captured by Ukraine in Donetsk
SECURITY SERVICE OF UKRAINE/EPA
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