- Russia’s Defense Ministry says its troops captured the village of Kiyanitsa in Ukraine’s Sumy region, a claim not independently verified.
- A Russian strike on two buses in Kramatorsk killed at least 33 people, Ukrainian officials said.
- Ukrainian drones hit two data centers of Russian tech giant Yandex on back-to-back days.
- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the war a dangerous stalemate, and the Kremlin agreed.
- U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, were set to open two days of peace talks with Ukrainian negotiators.
Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Friday that Russian troops captured the village of Kiyanitsa in Ukraine’s Sumy region. The claim comes as both sides widen their aerial campaigns, including a Russian strike that killed at least 33 people in Kramatorsk, Ukrainian officials said. American and Ukrainian negotiators are set to begin fresh peace talks Friday, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the war a dangerous stalemate.
Moscow claims a Sumy village and heavy Ukrainian losses
The ministry said taking Kiyanitsa allows Russia to expand what it calls a security buffer zone along its border, though the assertion remains unverified by independent sources.
Moscow’s Defense Ministry also claimed Ukrainian losses of more than 3,415 soldiers against its Tsentr battlegroup over the past week, plus armored vehicles, artillery and other equipment.
Civilian death toll mounts in Kramatorsk and Sumy
One of Ukraine’s deadliest attacks this year occurred Thursday when a Russian strike ignited two public buses in Kramatorsk, killing at least 33 people and wounding 18 others, local authorities said. Donetsk regional military chief Vadym Filashkin accused Moscow of deliberately targeting civilians, saying, “For them, a bus full of passengers is an attractive target precisely because a single strike can kill as many people as possible.”
Donetsk police said Russian drones also targeted officers assisting victims. The attack prompted Filashkin to halt public transit in Kramatorsk and nearby Sloviansk and urge remaining residents to leave the Donetsk region.
On Sunday, Russian guided bombs struck Sumy’s Zarichnyi district at around 7:50 a.m., injuring 13 people including a child, Ukrainian officials said. A 52-year-old company employee in the Sumy region was also killed.
Ukrainian drones strike Yandex data hubs
Ukraine broadened its targeting inside Russia this week, hitting two major data centers of Yandex, which is often described as Russia’s Google, on back-to-back days. Thursday’s attack shut down the Sasovo hub southeast of Moscow, while Friday’s strike partially disabled the Kaluga region facility southwest of the capital. Yandex shares fell more than 4% in Moscow trading.
Ukrainian arms maker Firepoint said Kyiv used its FP-1 drones in the Kaluga strike and that several modules there were fully disabled. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, “We always respond in mirror-like fashion,” after Russian attacks on Ukrainian data infrastructure over the past month.
New U.S.–Ukraine talks open as the stalemate persists
The deadly escalation unfolded as Ukrainian negotiators including foreign intelligence chief Rustem Umerov and presidential office head Kyrylo Budanov were heading to the United States for two days of talks beginning Friday. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, will lead discussions focused on what a senior administration official told NBC News is a new, comprehensive plan to end the war.
Rubio warned Thursday that a stalemate tends to end in either a settlement or escalation, and that escalation here could take the form of sabotage in neighboring NATO countries. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov agreed with Rubio’s assessment that the conflict has reached an impasse, according to Russian state media. He told journalists in Turkmenistan that diplomacy must find a path toward peace.
Russia currently occupies approximately one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, with President Vladimir Putin saying he wants to seize all of the Donbas region and Zelensky refusing to cede land he says Putin could use to launch new attacks.
Rubio’s warning that a stalemate could spill into sabotage inside NATO countries should not be ignored. Europeans, and the Americans treaty-bound to defend them, have no say in whether the war widens, yet they would absorb the consequences if it does. Diplomacy that takes months to find an exit leaves a lot of time for a miscalculation.
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