Kyiv: Russian forces have taken four border villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, a local official said Tuesday, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had issued an order to establish a buffer zone along the border.
Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region, where a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year captured a pocket of land in the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II. The long border is vulnerable to Ukrainian incursions, Putin said, and creating a buffer zone could help Russia prevent further cross-border attacks there.
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 Turkiye 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.
The US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia has not yet delivered a promised memorandum that he told US President Donald Trump in a phone call on May 19 would outline the framework for a possible peace agreement. The Kremlin has also ruled out the Vatican as a venue for future negotiations, he said. “We would have liked to have it at the Vatican and we were pretty set to do something like that, but the Russians didn’t want to go there … so I think Geneva may be the next stop,” Kellogg said in an interview.