By Tom Balmforth and Yuliia Dysa, Reuters
A burnt-out room is in a house destroyed by a Russian drone attack in the Odesa district, Odesa region, Ukraine, on May 26 , 2025. Photo: Nina Liashonok / NurPhoto via AFP
Russian forces have captured four villages in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, the local governor said, the latest battlefield setback for Kyiv as it seeks to hold territory and avoid handing Moscow the advantage in any peace talks.
The Russian advances follow some of the biggest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine since the full-scale war began in early 2022, although the level dropped markedly overnight in Europe from Monday to Tuesday.
Ukraine has also fired dozens of long-range drones into Russia in recent days, forcing some Moscow airports to close temporarily.
Ukrainian forces used Sumy region as a launch pad to seize a chunk of Russia's neighbouring Kursk region last year before being largely driven out by April. The area has been pounded for months by Russian guided bomb attacks and other strikes.
"The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called 'buffer zone'," Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook.
He said the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka had been occupied, adding that residents had long been evacuated.
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday it had taken the nearby village of Bilovody, implying a further advance in the more than three-year war.
Though Russia's offensive activity is concentrated in the eastern Donetsk region, Moscow's inroads into northeastern Ukraine show how it is stretching Kyiv's forces on multiple fronts.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly warned that Russia is preparing new offensives against Sumy as well as the northeastern Kharkiv and southeastern Zaporizhzhia regions.
"There is much evidence that they are preparing new offensive operations. Russia is counting on further war," he said on Monday, without elaborating.
Harsh words from Trump
Zelensky has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet over peace talks, after representatives from the warring parties met in person earlier in May for the first time in three years.
Russia launched an unprecedented drone barrage against Ukraine at the end of last week, firing more than 900 drones as well as missiles over three nights, prompting US President Donald Trump to label Putin as "crazy".
Trump also said he was considering new sanctions against Russia to pressure Moscow to negotiate, but there has been no indication of action yet and he has shifted US policy towards Russia's position since returning to office.
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that the scale of Russia's overnight attacks dropped sharply from the preceding barrage.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for the West to step up sanctions pressure on Russia to force it to accept the need for peace.
During a trip to the Kursk region in March, Putin repeated his call for his military to consider establishing a "buffer zone" along Russia's border.
Ukrainian officials have said for weeks that Russian troops are trying to make inroads into Sumy region, the main city of which lies less than 30km from the border.
Russian forces, attacking in small groups on motorcycles and supported by drones, have been widening the area where they have been carrying out assaults, a spokesperson for Ukraine's border guard service said.
Hryhorov, the regional governor, said Ukraine's troops were "keeping the situation under control, inflicting precise fire damage on the enemy".
- Reuters
