Russia advances in Ukraine amid row over dead soldiers
Russia says its forces have advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between the countries over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers.
Despite talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory and Ukraine unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to the Kremlin, on railways.
Russia, which controls about 18 per cent of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190 square km of the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open source maps.
Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region.
"The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region," Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces said on Telegram.
"Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier's plans. This work does not stop for a minute."
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said the Dnipropetrovsk offensive showed that if Ukraine did not want to accept the reality of Russia's territorial gains in peace talks then Russian forces would advance further.
The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than three million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions.
Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Zaporozhets said that Russian forces were trying to "build a bridgehead for an attack" on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army.
Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and return of the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers.
Ukraine denied those claims.
On Sunday, Russia said it was moving bodies towards the border and television showed refrigerated trucks containing the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers on the road in the Bryansk region.
Ukraine, officials said, was playing politics with the dead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged to press on with prisoner exchanges.
"The Russian side is therefore, like always, even in these matters, is trying to play some kind of dirty political and information game," he said in his nightly video address.
"We believe that the exchanges will continue and will do everything for this. If the Russians do not stand by agreements even in humanitarian matters, it casts great doubt on all international efforts - including those by the United States in terms of talks and diplomacy."
Zelenskiy said he had reviewed commanders' reports about areas hit by heavy fighting, including near Pokrovsk, targeted by Russian forces for months.
He said the situation was "far from easy but everything depends on the resilience of our units".
Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians in his video message to be particularly attentive to air raid warnings in the coming days.
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Russia transported the bodies ready for handover over the weekend in what it termed a "humanitarian action" while Ukraine said that no agreement on a handover date had been reached. The Istanbul talks provided for the return of the remains of more than 6000 fallen soldiers from Russia to Ukraine. Work on implementing the Istanbul agreements will continue, Medinsky said, with an exchange of seriously wounded prisoners of war to take place on Thursday. Ukraine and Russia had already exchanged an unspecified number of prisoners in recent days. In Istanbul, it was agreed that each side would release in stages 1200 prisoners - those under 25, the seriously wounded and the seriously ill. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than three years. During the war, there have been repeated exchanges of prisoners and the return of bodies. 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