Russian forces have seized four border villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, a local official said on Tuesday, just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin stated he had ordered the establishment of a buffer zone along the border.
Elsewhere, a Russian bombing campaign, which had escalated in recent days, slowed overnight, with fewer Russian drones targeting Ukrainian towns and cities.
Despite months of intense US-led efforts to secure a ceasefire for peace talks, Moscow's invasion shows no signs of stopping.
Since Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey earlier this month for their first direct talks in three years, a large prisoner exchange has been the only tangible outcome, but negotiations have brought no significant breakthrough.
Between Friday and Sunday, Russia launched around 900 drones at Ukraine, officials said, amid a spate of large-scale bombardments.
On Sunday night, Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the three-year war against Ukraine, firing 355 drones.
From Monday to Tuesday, Russia fired 60 drones at Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed its air defenses had downed 99 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions.
In Sumy, Russian forces are trying to advance deeper after capturing villages, Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration, said in a statement.
Ukrainian forces are endeavoring to hold the line, he said.
Residents of the captured villages were evacuated earlier, and there is no immediate threat to civilians, Hryhorov said.
Putin visited the Kursk region last week for the first time since Moscow claimed that it drove Ukrainian forces out of the area last month. Kyiv officials have denied the claim. Ukraine seized a pocket of land in Kursk last August.
The long border remains vulnerable to Ukrainian incursions, Putin said. He said he told the Russian military to create a “security buffer zone” along the border but provided no public details of where the proposed zone would be or how far it would stretch.
Putin said a year ago that a Russian offensive at the time aimed to create a buffer zone in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. That could have helped protect Russia’s Belgorod border region, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.
