KYIV, June 8 – Ukraine’s military command on Sunday denied Russian reports that Russian forces had reached the border of Dnipropetrovsk region, a key region in central parts of the country that Russia was trying to reach for months.

Viktor Trehubov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Khortytsia forces, which is in command of the area Moscow alleged it broke through, told CNN that “the Russians are constantly spreading false information that they have entered the Dnipropetrovsk region from the Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka directions, but (in neither place) is this information true.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that subunits from the Russian military’s 90th tank division reached the border of Dnipropetrovsk with the Donetsk region, large parts of which are already under Russian occupation.

Russian forces have also in recent weeks made incremental progress in the northern Sumy region, as well as near Lyman in Donetsk.

The Russian advance would also put further pressure on the Ukrainians’ grip on the town of Pokrovsk, a key hub that has been under Russian assault for months. Ukraine’s General Staff said Sunday morning that its troops had stopped 65 “offensive” Russian actions in the Pokrovsk direction.

An Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessment of Russia’s offensive campaign found that Russian forces continued their offensive operations in the Pokrovsk direction on Saturday, but did not advance.

Russia now controls just under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, according to the Ukrainian analysis group Deep State. That includes Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine that were occupied before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Dnipropetrovsk is bordered by three regions that are partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

One of Russia’s declared goals is capturing all three regions. It already occupies all but a slither of a fourth region, Luhansk.

Dnipropetrovsk is more sparsely populated and rural than those four regions, known as the Donbas, and will be more difficult to defend. It is an important mining and logistics center and had an estimated population of three million before the war began.

Russia’s claim comes days after its forces advanced further in the northern Sumy region, bringing the region’s capital within range of drones and artillery.

While capturing the region’s capital city, also named Sumy, is likely beyond what Moscow is setting out to do, the move underlines the pressure Kyiv is under, from the northern border to the Black Sea.

The war has intensified in recent weeks. Ukraine conducted an audacious drone attack that took out multiple aircraft inside Russia last Sunday, as well as a strike on the bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula using underwater explosives on Monday.

Russian forces have also advanced further into Ukraine, attempting to grab territory quickly as peace talks between the warring countries continue. (cnn/ez)