Zohra Benedra, Joseph Campbell

SUMY (Ukraine) – While Russia may have pulled back some areas of Ukraine’s territory more than a week earlier, the Northern Sumy territorial defense force is still training for possible attacks.

Soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, in what Vladimir Putin described as “a special military operations”, the Russians crossed into Sumy and began fighting along the roads to Kyiv.

Dmytro Zovitskyi was the Sumy regional and military administrator. At that time there weren’t many regular soldiers, so instead, locals picked up any arms, like Molotov cocktails.

Zhivitskyi said to Reuters that Russians planned to overthrow Sumy within three to five business days.

They knew there weren’t many regular troops in Sumy, so there was no defense.

Zhivitskyi announced that Ukrainian forces assumed control over the region’s northeastern regions on April 8th.

I believe the likelihood of an (unprecedented) attack is very high. “They are determined. We know that Russia has about 150 million people,” he stated. “They will send more people to Russia until tanks and people die,” he said.

Russian aggression has left behind a trail that is full of deaths and destruction. It has caused worldwide outrage and raised questions about Putin’s larger ambitions.

Russia denies that troops in Ukraine committed war crimes.

Western countries believe that Russia is now supplying troops and reinforcements for an intensified offensive on eastern Ukraine. However, it is unclear if the Kremlin intends to again attack the Sumy Region.

Members of the local territorial defence force say that they are getting ready, and the volunteers now number more than 1,000. Sumy was home to more than 1,000 regular soldiers, according to local authorities.

Ihor, an ex-youth worker and now territorial defense officer, joined the ranks on day 1 of World War II. Hannenko was joined by several brigade members on Friday for communication drills and training simulations to prepare them for the raid of an abandoned building in the city’s outskirts.

    “There were a lot of situations when we would go on a mission, and we were called and told that there are no Russian columns there because someone had already destroyed them,” said the 28-year-old. “We did not even know who it was.”