Reportedly, Russian contingents have established a presence within four Ukrainian border villages in the Sumy Oblast, a territory contiguous with Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian units had previously wrested control of certain sectors; this manoeuvre transpires in the wake of President Putin's pronouncements concerning the prospective creation of a buffer zone along the frontier, intended to forestall further Ukrainian incursions, even as the recent, albeit marginally attenuated, Russian aerial bombardment campaign, coupled with the conspicuous absence of substantive progress in peace parleys – the sole tangible outcome of direct negotiations thus far being a large-scale prisoner exchange – and the non-receipt by US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg of Putin's projected memorandum delineating a potential peace accord framework, all underscore the inexorable continuation of Moscow's incursion, notwithstanding a discernible diminution in Russian drone sorties observed between Monday and Tuesday, against a backdrop of ongoing large-scale bombardments, while Russian forces ostensibly seek to consolidate and extend their territorial gains within Sumy, as Ukrainian forces endeavour to maintain their defensive perimeters.