Russia says captured two more Ukraine villages

MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday claimed the capture of two villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, pressing ahead with its advance amid stumbling efforts for a ceasefire by US President Donald Trump.

The defence ministry said Moscow’s forces captured the village of Shchebraki in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Panteleimonivka in the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile said Russia had launched more than 170 drones into Ukraine overnight, striking targets in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi regions.

He said four people were killed in Dnipro, where the strike hit a hotel complex, and 21 others were injured, including a pregnant woman.

“Russia is making a mockery of peacekeeping efforts around the world. It is dragging out the war and sowing terror because it still feels no real pressure,” Zelensky said.

For several weeks, the United States has been trying to negotiate a ceasefire in the Black Sea and in strikes targeting energy infrastructure in both nations with both Moscow and Kyiv.

While both countries have agreed to these truces in principle, their implementation remains unclear, and Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of seeking to derail them.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the idea of a “transitional administration” for Ukraine, under the auspices of the UN, an option that would imply Zelensky’s departure, before any peace deal was negotiated.