Russia seizes Ukrainian border villages as its bombing campaign slows

Russian forces have taken four border villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, a local official said Tuesday, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had ordered troops to establish a buffer zone along the border.

Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region, where a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year captured a pocket of land in the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II. The long border is vulnerable to Ukrainian incursions, Putin said, and creating a buffer zone could help Russia prevent further cross-border attacks there.

Meanwhile, a Russian bombing campaign that had escalated in recent days slowed overnight, with far fewer Russian drones targeting Ukrainian towns and cities.

Moscow's invasion has shown no signs of stopping despite months of intense U.S.-led efforts to secure a ceasefire and get traction for peace talks. Since Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey on May 16 for their first direct talks in three years, a large prisoner exchange has been the only tangible outcome, but negotiations have brought no significant breakthrough.

The U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Putin has not yet delivered a promised memorandum that the Russian leader told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on May 19 would outline the framework for a possible peace agreement.

The Kremlin has also ruled out the Vatican as a venue for negotiations, he said. “We would have liked to have it at the Vatican and we were pretty set to do something like that, but the Russians didn’t want to go there … so I think Geneva may be the next stop,” Kellogg told the Fox News Channel.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country also was ready to host another round of peace talks.

Between Friday and Sunday, Russia launched about 900 drones at Ukraine, officials said, amid a spate of large-scale bombardments. On Sunday night, Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the 3-year-old war, firing 355 drones.

From Monday to Tuesday, Russia fired 60 drones at Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its defenses downed 99 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions.

The weekend surge in Russian bombardments drew a rebuke from Trump, who said Putin had gone “crazy.” That comment brought a sharp Kremlin reaction Monday, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticizing ”emotional reactions” to events.

He took a milder tone Tuesday, hailing U.S. peace efforts and saying that “the Americans and President Trump have taken a quite balanced approach.”

But Trump kept up the rhetorical pressure, saying in a social media post that Putin was “playing with fire!”

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD," he said.

In Sumy, Russian forces are trying to advance deeper after capturing villages, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration.

Ukrainian forces are trying to hold the line, he said, adding that residents of the villages were evacuated earlier, and there is no immediate threat to civilians.

Putin visited the Kursk region last week for the first time since Moscow claimed last month that it drove Ukrainian forces out of the area where they captured land last August. Kyiv officials have denied the claim.

The long border remains vulnerable to Ukrainian incursions, Putin said. He said he told the Russian military to create a “security buffer zone” along the frontier but provided no public details of where the proposed zone would be or how far it would stretch.

Putin said a year ago that a Russian offensive at the time aimed to create a buffer zone in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. That could have helped protect Russia’s Belgorod border region, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.

Davies reported from Manchester, England. Darlene Superville in Washington and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting of the Russia - Land of Opportunities Supervisory Board at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan shake hands during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov, Pool)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, Ukrainian servicemen attend a military training in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, May 26, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, Ukrainian servicemen attend a military training in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, May 26, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, Ukrainian servicemen attend a military training in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, May 26, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)