Russia says it has moved into the previously unscathed Dnipropetrovsk region to create a buffer zone, a claim Ukraine has dismissed.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were gradually pushing Russian forces out of the border Sumy region, where Moscow has established a foothold in recent weeks.

SUMY (Reuters) -Margaryta Husakova, her broken arm secured in a metal orthopedic fixation device, smoked nervously as she sat on the staircase of a refugee shelter in Sumy, a city in northern Ukraine, contemplating what the future holds.