The advance may be linked to Moscow's attempts to create "buffer zones" along the border, Ukrainian regional authorities say.

A Ukrainian official says Russian forces have taken over four border villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

A group of G.O.P. senators has grown more vocal about urging penalties on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, offering a counterpoint to President Trump’s hands-off stance.

Germany has given Ukraine the green light to strike targets inside Russia using long-range weapons supplied by Berlin, in a decision that signals a notable hardening of Western resolve as the war grinds on.

Germany and other Ukrainian allies have lifted restrictions on Kyiv firing long-range missiles into Russia for the first time, the German chancellor said Monday, after days of Russia bombarding the capital and other regions with massive aerial attacks.

Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine, backed by certain European countries, had taken several 'provocative steps' aimed at derailing Moscow-initiated direct peace talks with Kyiv.

Russia rebukes Trump’s “absolutely crazy” Putin comment, blaming his “emotional overload” after major Ukraine air assault.

Putin made the comments after a Russian business leader said Microsoft and Zoom were eating into the local market.

With diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire appearing remote, and President Trump apparently abandoning the process, Russia has been escalating its assaults on Ukrainian cities and on the battlefield.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's remarks about long-range Ukrainian strikes into Russia with European weapons suggested that a decision allowing such attacks had been made long ago.

Ukrainian intelligence and open-source data show Russian President Vladimir Putin does not "plan to end the war," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily evening address Monday. "There is currently no indication that they are seriously considering peace or diplomacy,