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Ukrainian officials issued evacuation orders on Saturday for 11 more villages in the northern Sumy region after continued Russian gains led to fears that Moscow could be gearing up for a fresh ground offensive.
Russia advanced deeper into Ukrainian territory on Saturday, taking control of two more villages in Sumy and killing two people in a missile and drone barrage. More than 200 settlements in the region were already under evacuation orders.
The attacks came as Ukrainian diplomats continue to discuss participating in a fresh round of peace talks proposed by Moscow in Istanbul next week.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymr Zelenskyy, has said that about 50,000 Russian troops were gathered on the border near the Sumy region, which he said was a sign that Moscow is preparing a renewed offensive.
The Russian ministry of defence said on Saturday that it had taken control of the village of Novopil in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as the village of Vodolahy in the northern Sumy region.
Russia’s military also launched 109 drones and five missiles at Ukraine overnight and in the early hours of Saturday, many of which were intercepted, the Ukrainian air force said.
The missile salvo killed a nine-year-old girl in the Zaporizhzhia region, eastern Ukraine, as well as injured a 16-year-old, the governor of Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fedorov, said. Another man was killed by Russian shelling in the port city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine. “One house was destroyed. The shock wave from the blast also damaged several other houses, cars and outbuildings,” Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine also launched drone attacks in western Russia on Saturday, injuring 14 people.
The back and forth attacks came as the prospect of continued peace talks between Russia and Ukraine remain uncertain. Moscow had proposed direct peace talks between the two countries in Istanbul on Monday, but Kyiv insisted that Russia should first provide a promised ceasefire proposal before it agrees to attend.
Russia had previously said it would share a memorandum stating its position on what it wants to end the three-year war between the two countries, but has yet to do so. Ukrainian officials said that they had already handed a proposal to Russia setting out its terms.
Zelenskyy accused Russia on Friday of “undermining diplomacy” by not giving Ukrainians its position paper.
“For some reason, the Russians are concealing this document. This is an absolutely bizarre position. There is no clarity about the format,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. Moscow has said that it will provide its peace terms in person on Monday.
Both Russia and Ukraine have come under increasing international pressure to achieve a ceasefire, particularly after the US president, Donald Trump, made a ceasefire a key foreign policy priority. Trump has called for direct talks between the two countries, while Turkey has played a mediation role, offering to host summits between them.
Diplomacy has had small gains, with an unprecedented prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine leading to 1,000 prisoners being exchanged earlier in the month. The prisoner swap, meant to be a confidence-building measure, has yet to lead to greater breakthroughs.
The EU has accused Russia of stalling ceasefire talks while it makes gains on the battlefield, a claim that Moscow has rebuffed. Moscow has said it is Ukraine that is delaying a ceasefire, though the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has declined to agree to calls for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths. Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
