The fiercest combat took place on Kondratieva street, near the city's cadet school, where the Ukrainian 27th Artillery Brigade was stationed.

[16] Hundreds of policemen had been ordered to evacuate the city towards Poltava and Cherkasy early in the invasion, so during the first days of the battle, Sumy's defenders were almost entirely civilian Territorial Defence Forces units.

[18] The 5th Battalion Tactical Group of the 81st Airmobile Brigade, a "small military unit", was also present in Sumy and had received instructions on 24 February to hold it at any cost.

[22] Ukrainian territorial defense forces also allegedly destroyed a convoy of Russian fuel trucks moving towards Kyiv on the Kursk highway.

[23] Mayor Oleksandr Lysenko reported three civilian deaths on 26 February, including one killed when Russian BM-21 Grad vehicles fired missiles into Veterenivka [uk], a residential area in the western part of Sumy.

[25] On the morning of 27 February, a column of Russian vehicles advanced into Sumy from the direction of Sumykhimprom, a chemical plant east of the city.

[37] On 15 March, over one hundred instances of shelling were recorded on the city of Sumy and its outskirts, according to Ukrainian territorial defense forces.

[40] Two days earlier, Russian general Mikhail Mizintsev alleged that Ukrainian nationalists had mined the chemical plant as part of a "false flag" plot.

[48] By 27 March, the Russian military had withdrawn from some of the villages closest to Sumy, and had detonated a bridge over the Psel River during their retreat.

[49] On 4 April 2022, Governor Zhyvytskyi declared that Russian troops no longer occupied any towns or villages in Sumy Oblast and had mostly withdrawn.

[citation needed] In mid-May, Russian troops made numerous attempted border crossings in the Sumy area.