Russia seizes Ukrainian border villages as massive bombing campaign slows
Meanwhile, a Russian bombing campaign that had escalated in recent days slowed overnight as far fewer Russian drones targeted Ukrainian towns and cities.
Moscow's invasion has shown no signs of stopping despite months of intense US-led efforts to secure a ceasefire and get traction for peace talks.
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.
Homes in Korostyshiv, in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, pictured on Sunday after being destroyed by a Russian strike (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
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 defence claimed its air defences 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 endeavouring to hold the line, he said.
Residents of the captured villages were evacuated earlier, and there was no immediate threat to civilians, Mr Hryhorov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had issued an order to establish a buffer zone along the border (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Mr Putin visited the Kursk region last week for the first time since Moscow claimed that it had driven 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, Mr 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.
Mr Putin said a year ago that a Russian offensive at the time aimed to create a buffer zone in Ukraine's north-eastern Kharkiv region. That could have helped protect Russia's Belgorod border region, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.
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North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Ukraine says it destroyed more than 40 military planes in drone attack in Russia
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Dozens of Russian warplanes destroyed in Ukrainian drone attack, claims Kyiv
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Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Hopes fade for Russia-Ukraine peace talks without Putin's conditions
Prospects for progress at a second round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Turkey on Monday are looking slim after President Zelensky accused Moscow of failing to take them seriously. Delegates from the two warring states are due to meet in Istanbul to discuss a potential ceasefire that would halt their three-year fight, instigated by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, Zelensky, Ukraine's leader, said in his evening address on Saturday that Kyiv had no clarity on Russia's position as Moscow had not fulfilled an agreement to hand over a memorandum outlining its conditions before the talks. 'We don't have it, Turkey doesn't have it, the United States doesn't have it, and neither do our other partners,' Zelensky said. 'At this point, it looks far from serious.' Zelensky added that rather than stepping down a road to peace, Russia was intensifying its assaults on Ukrainian territory. He urged the United States to adopt new sanctions on Moscow 'to help bring peace closer'. On Sunday, Zelensky said that Kyiv's chief demands in Istanbul would be a ceasefire, the release of more prisoners and the return of abducted Ukrainian children from Russia. He repeated his call for a personal summit with Putin and other leaders. • Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks since 2022 in Istanbul on May 16 and agreed a '1,000 for 1,000' prisoner swap — completed last weekend — as well as pledging to produce memos on their demands for a ceasefire, and continue talks. Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's defence minister, said that Kyiv had already passed Moscow its own memo, urging Russia to follow suit and 'stop efforts to make the meeting destructive'. 'The Russians' fear of sending their 'memorandum' to Ukraine suggests that it is likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums, and they are afraid of revealing that they are stalling the peace process,' Ukraine's foreign ministry added. In response, the Kremlin said that it was Russia that had proposed the new talks in Turkey and that Kyiv is 'demanding something immediately is not constructive'. Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said Moscow's delegation would present its memorandum at the negotiating table in Istanbul and 'provide the necessary clarifications'. Over the weekend, President Trump's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, renewed the criticism of Moscow for failing to supply a draft to the US in advance. 'We cannot get the Russians' conditions,' he told Fox News. 'We still haven't gotten them. They promised Trump, Putin promised that he would have it in a week. A week later, they didn't show up.' Meanwhile, President Putin's agenda for ending the war includes a written pledge by Nato not to accept more Eastern European members, lifting of some sanctions, and Ukraine's neutral status, the Reuters news agency reported. Several Nato staffers and diplomats familiar with the talks told Radio Free Europe that there are no active discussions in the alliance about Moscow's demand for a written commitment not to expand further to the east, suggesting Putin's proposal would be given short shrift. Kellogg, however, said that Moscow's concern over Nato enlargement is 'fair' and Ukraine's accession to the alliance is 'not on the table'.
