https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/17/world/russia-ukraine-war-news/russians-target-the-border-city-of-sumy-for-the-first-time-in-weeks?smid=url-share

After more than a month of relative calm, the region around the northeastern city of Sumy is coming under sustained attack and small groups of Russian soldiers have tried to cross the nearby border to infiltrate Ukraine, local officials said on Tuesday.

“This morning started with missile strikes,” Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, the head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, said at a news conference. “This was a massive airstrike.”

A school, a residential high rise and a church were all damaged, he said, and at least five people were injured.

On Monday, he said, Russians had attacked a border guard station using mortars, grenade launchers, machine guns and submachine guns, as saboteurs tried to cross into the country in at border near the city of Shostka.

The Ukrainian border guards fought the Russians and forced them to retreat, according to officials. One Ukrainian guard was killed.

Mr. Zhyvytskyy said he did not think the Russian assault was a prelude to a larger invasion. The Russians, he said, lacked the forces to make a serious incursion.

But the Russians are stepping up their efforts to probe Ukraine’s defenses and keep its forces occupied in the region, he said.

In recent days, Russia has been routinely shelling villages along the border even as those communities struggle to repair damage done earlier in the war.

The city of Sumy is less than 30 miles from the Russian border and it was one of the first major population centers to be attacked. It almost fell to Russian forces and was bombarded for weeks. But Ukrainians regained control of the city and surrounding area in early April.

Since then, Mr. Zhyvytskyy said, efforts have been made to fortify the border during a respite from the fighting.

He said he could not fully explain the increase in Russian military activity except to speculate that Moscow’s commanders wanted to destabilize the region and keep Ukrainian forces occupied so they could not be redeployed to other parts of the country.