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DOBROPILLIA, Ukraine: Russia on Saturday said its troops had retaken three villages seized by Ukraine in its Kursk border region in a fresh setback for Kyiv as the prospect of peace negotiations appeared to be increasing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called for more sanctions against Russia as overnight strikes killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more.
The war is at a critical juncture, days ahead of talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators aimed at securing a truce in the three-year-long war.
Washington has suspended crucial US military aid and access to satellite imagery and intelligence sharing after President Donald Trump and Zelensky had a public falling-out in the Oval Office last week.
Ukraine still controls some 400 square kilometers (150 square miles) in the Kursk region after launching a cross-border offensive last August and Zelensky sees this as a possible bargaining chip in peace talks.
But Ukraine’s troops in Kursk have seen their position worsen in recent weeks with Russia’s army encroaching.
Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday announced the recapture of three more villages: Viktorovka, Nikolayevka and Staraya Sorochina.
According to DeepState, an online military tracker linked to the Ukrainian army, the Russian move followed a “breach” in Ukrainian defense lines near the town of Sudzha, which is under Kyiv’s control.
Russia appears to have cut off the logistics route needed by Ukraine to supply its troops in the town.
The Ukrainian army has not commented on the latest claim, but Russia has already taken back more than two-thirds of its territory initially seized by Kyiv.
Peace negotiations remain a distant prospect with Kyiv and Moscow making starkly opposed demands. But Trump’s return to the White House has brought this prospect nearer.
The American president has radically shifted the US position, reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin while criticizing Zelensky.
Trump has said it may be “easier” to work with Moscow than Kyiv on efforts to end the three-year-long war.
Senior US and Ukrainian officials are set to meet for talks on the war in Jeddah on Tuesday. Zelensky will also visit on Monday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said he would speak to the Ukrainian negotiators about an “initial ceasefire” with Russia and a “framework” for a longer agreement.
Trump says he wants to end the war as soon as possible, but Ukraine fears being forced to make heavy territorial concessions to Moscow.
Kyiv’s troops are also struggling on the eastern front, although an AFP analysis of US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data showed Moscow’s advance had slowed in February.
Trump on Friday threatened new sanctions and tariffs on Russia over its bombardment of Ukraine.
Zelensky also called for allies to “increase sanctions against Russia” after heavy overnight bombardment in the east and northeast.
A Russian assault hit the center of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region late on Friday, killing 11 people and wounding 30, according to the emergency services.
Separately, three people were killed and seven others wounded in a drone attack early on Saturday in the town of Bogodukhiv, the military head of the eastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegubov, said.
Russia fired two missiles and 145 drones at Bogodukhiv, Ukraine’s air force said.
The latest air raids came after EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, agreed to boost the bloc’s defenses.
Putin “has no interest in peace,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Saturday, adding that “we must step up our military support.”
In Dobropillia, AFP saw charred residential buildings, flattened market stalls and evidence of cluster bomb damage.
Irina Kostenko, 59, spent the night cowering in her hallway with her husband. When she left the apartment building on Saturday, she saw a neighbor “lying dead on the ground, covered with a blanket.”
“It was shocking, I don’t have the words to describe it,” Kostenko told AFP.
Moscow’s defense ministry on Saturday said its air defense systems destroyed 31 Ukrainian drones over the past night.
A Ukrainian drone attack also targeted Russia’s Kirishi oil refinery and falling debris caused damage to a reservoir, the governor of the northwestern Leningrad region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said.
A civilian was wounded by a drone attack in Belgorod district near the Ukraine border, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.