Russia captures more Ukrainian villages as Trump-Putin meeting remains uncertain
Russia claimed new territorial gains in Ukraine as diplomacy struggled to gain traction amid growing civilian casualties.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had captured two more villages in southeastern Ukraine amid escalating cross-border strikes.
In a statement posted on Telegram, the ministry said Russian troops took control of Pavlivka in the Zaporizhzhia region and Ivanivka in neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk.
It also claimed to have hit Ukrainian energy facilities in retaliation for attacks on Russian civilian targets.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged heavy overnight missile fire, intensifying a conflict that shows no sign of easing.
Ukrainian officials reported earlier on Wednesday that Russian strikes killed six people, including two children, in Kiev and surrounding areas, and caused widespread power outages across the country.
Ukraine’s military, separately, said it had struck a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region using Franco-British Storm Shadow missiles, describing the attack as part of ongoing defensive operations.
Last week, Putin and Trump held a phone conversation and agreed to convene a summit in Hungary, which the Kremlin said could take place within weeks.
Ambiguity
Diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting have stalled, and the White House said there were no imminent plans for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Trump said he did not want to have a wasted meeting — something Moscow also says it wants to avoid.
Russian officials said, however, that preparations continued for a summit.
"The dates haven't been set yet, but thorough preparation is needed before then, and that takes time," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"It's clear that all of this is surrounded by a great deal of gossip, rumours, and so on. Much of it is completely untrue. There's no news yet."
The delay came after Russia reiterated to the US its previous terms for reaching a peace deal, including that Ukraine cede control of the whole of the southeastern Donbass region, three sources told Reuters.
That amounted to a rejection of Trump's statement last week that both sides should stop at the current front lines.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state news agency RIA as saying he could not confirm that Moscow had conveyed its position.
"Preparations for the summit are continuing," Ryabkov was quoted as saying. "I don't see any major obstacles."