Days after Putin’s order for a buffer zone, Russian forces push deeper into northeastern Ukraine amid continued drone warfare.
Russian forces have seized four border villages in Ukraine’s Sumy region, northeastern Ukraine, a local official confirmed on Tuesday. This move comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he had ordered troops to establish a buffer zone along the border.
Sumy shares a border with Russia’s Kursk region, where a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year briefly captured a slice of Russian territory — the first occupation of Russian land since World War II. Putin has argued that the long border remains vulnerable to Ukrainian raids and that creating a buffer zone could help prevent further cross-border attacks.
Meanwhile, Russia’s recent bombardment campaign, which had intensified in recent days, slowed somewhat overnight, with far fewer Russian drones striking Ukrainian cities and towns.
Moscow’s invasion shows no signs of halting despite months of intense US-led diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire and advance peace talks. Since Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey on May 16 for their first direct talks in three years, a large prisoner swap has been the only tangible outcome, with no significant breakthroughs emerging from negotiations.
US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Putin has yet to deliver the memorandum he promised, which the Russian leader reportedly told former US President Donald Trump during a May 19 phone call would outline the framework for a potential peace deal.
Kellogg also noted that the Kremlin has rejected the Vatican as a negotiation venue. “We would have liked to hold it at the Vatican, and we were quite willing, but the Russians didn’t want to go there… so I think Geneva might be the next stop,” Kellogg told Fox News Channel. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country also stands ready to host another round of peace talks.
Drone warfare escalates
Between Friday and Sunday, Russia launched around 900 drones at Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities, amid a wave of large-scale bombardments. On Sunday night alone, Russia conducted its largest drone attack of the three-year war, deploying 355 drones.
From Monday to Tuesday, Russia fired 60 drones at Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces shot down 99 Ukrainian drones overnight across seven Russian regions.
The weekend surge in Russian bombardments prompted a rebuke from Trump, who declared that Putin had gone “crazy.” On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed such “emotional reactions,” but by Tuesday, he adopted a softer tone, praising US peace efforts and noting that “the Americans and President Trump have taken quite a balanced approach.”
Still, Trump maintained rhetorical pressure, posting on social media that Putin was “playing with fire!”
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t understand is that if it weren’t for me, a lot of really bad things would have already happened in Russia — and I mean REALLY BAD,” Trump asserted.
Push into Sumy region
In Sumy, Russian forces are now trying to advance deeper after capturing the border villages, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of Sumy’s regional military administration. Ukrainian forces are working to hold the line, he added, noting that residents of the villages had been evacuated beforehand and that there is no immediate threat to civilians.
Putin visited Russia’s Kursk region last week for the first time since Moscow claimed last month to have pushed Ukrainian forces out of the area they had captured last August — a claim Kyiv has denied.
Putin has repeatedly stressed that the extensive border remains vulnerable to Ukrainian incursions. He announced that he had ordered the Russian military to create a “security zone” along the border but has not provided public details on the proposed zone’s location or size.
A year ago, Putin said a Russian offensive aimed to create a buffer zone in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, which could help shield Russia’s Belgorod border region, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.
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