Russian shelling targeted border areas in Sumy Province in Ukraine's northeast, causing multiple explosions, local officials said on July 15, as Kyiv claimed its troops were advancing against the invading forces in the country's south.
No casualties were reported from the latest Russian strikes in Sumy, but the regional military administration said several residential buildings and agricultural equipment were damaged in the attack.
The attack "by various types of weapons" caused dozens of explosions, damaging two private houses in the Novoslobidsk area and destroying two harvesters and two tractors in the Khotyn rural settlement, the military administration said. Three residential buildings were damaged in the Seredino-Budsk area, it added.
Sumy Province, which borders Russia, frequently comes under Russian strikes. Three people were killed and 21 others were wounded in a drone strike on the namesake provincial capital, Sumy, on July 4.
Regional authorities have said they were considering a plan to resettle some 12,000 residents from the border areas.
The Ukrainian military, meanwhile, said its troops were advancing in the southern Zaporizhzhya region and restraining an "onslaught" by the Russian Army on the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the east.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces said in its evening summary on July 14 that the enemy carried out 43 air strikes and launched 17 attacks from rocket salvo systems. It said the Russian military would continue to focus its main efforts on areas around Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka. About 20 combat clashes took place during the day.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy referred to the fighting in his nightly address late on July 14, telling Ukrainians they must realize that Russian forces in the south and east are deploying all possible resources to stop Ukrainian soldiers from advancing.
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"We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers," Zelenskiy said after chairing a meeting with top commanders.
"And every 1,000 meters we advance, every success of every combat brigade, deserves our gratitude," he said.
Zelenskiy met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on July 15, offering support for Kyiv in its war with Russia.
Speaking at a press briefing after the meeting, Yoon pledged to increase his country's humanitarian and nonlethal military assistance to Ukraine.
South Korea "will expand the scale of supplies from last year, when we provided materials such as helmets and bulletproof vests," he told reporters, adding that humanitarian aid would be increased to $150 million in 2023, from $100 million last year.
Ahead of the meeting with the Ukrainian leader, Yoon toured Bucha and Irpin, towns near Kyiv where bodies of civilians were found in the streets and mass graves after Russian troops retreated from the area last year.
Yoon, who was accompanied by his wife, laid flowers at a monument to the country's war dead, his office said.
South Korea has provided humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has also sold tanks and howitzers to Poland -- a key ally for Kyiv.
However, South Korea -- the world's ninth-largest arms exporter -- has not directly provided weapons to Ukraine in line with Seoul's long-standing policy of not supplying arms to active conflict zones.
Yoon told The Associated Press earlier this months that supplies of demining equipment, ambulances, and other nonmilitary materials "are in the works" following a request from Kyiv.
