Reports say that Russian soldiers have taken over four villages in Ukraine's Sumy region, which is close to Russia's Kursk region. Ukrainian forces took some land there last year. This happened after Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said he wanted to create a safe area along the border to stop more Ukrainian attacks. Even though Russian bombing has gone down a little recently, Russia's invasion is still going on, and peace talks haven't made much progress. The only clear thing that came from recent direct talks was a big exchange of prisoners. Keith Kellogg, the US special representative for Ukraine, has not yet received Putin's promised paper about a possible peace deal. During heavy bombing, there was a clear decrease in drone attacks from Russia between Monday and Tuesday. Also, Russian forces are trying to move deeper into Sumy, while Ukrainian forces are working hard to keep their positions.