LUGANSK, July 17. /TASS/. The Russian Armed Forces have advanced west and east of the Ivolzhanskoye settlement in the Sumy Region, expanding their area of control, military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS.

"According to the information I've been receiving from the Sumy area and directly from Ivolzhanskoye, our troops have now expanded their zone of control west and east of this settlement," he said.

According to the military expert, Russian forces have already begun a mopping-up operation in the forest east of Ivolzhanskoye.

Marochko told TASS earlier that the Russian Armed Forces had established a bridgehead near Ivolzhanskoye and that they were disrupting the Ukrainian troops' logistics west of the settlement.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had established control over Ivolzhanskoye in the Sumy Region on June 24.