# Russian forces recapture villages in Ukrainian-held pocket inside Russia

Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia while Ukrainian delegation will meet with Marco Rubio and Trump aides



A Ukrainian soldier patrols a street in Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, held by Ukraine for seven months. Photograph: Yan Dobronosov/Reuters



A Ukrainian soldier patrols a street in Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, held by Ukraine for seven months. Photograph: Yan Dobronosov/Reuters

On Monday,  will hold talks with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh and on Tuesday, a delegation led by Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, will meet with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and other senior White House officials. Zelenskyy will not take part in the negotiations.

The Ukrainian side is likely to propose a peace plan sketched out by Zelenskyy last week featuring a halt to drone and missiles strikes, as well as a  So far, however, Vladimir Putin has showed no interest in a ceasefire.

For seven months, Ukraine has controlled a pocket inside western Russia. Last week, Russian and North Korean troops launched a major offensive, shortly after Donald Trump pulled the plug on military support,  with Kyiv.

There were unconfirmed reports some Ukrainian soldiers had been captured amid heavy fighting. The crucial supply road between Sudzha and Ukraine’s Sumy region is under constant Russian fire.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s general staff said it had repelled an  by Russian sabotage and assault groups via a gas pipeline. About 100 Russian soldiers spent four days crawling through the 15km-long pipe that leads to Sudzha’s outskirts.

Ukrainian airborne assault forces wiped out some of the Russians using artillery strikes soon after they emerged, . “Russian special forces are being detected, blocked and destroyed. Enemy losses in the Sudzha area are very heavy,” Ukraine’s military said.

It admitted the situation was difficult but under control, with Russia employing North Korean combat units. They include replacement soldiers sent by Pyongyang after the original 11,000-strong North Korean contingent that arrived last November suffered heavy losses.

According to the FT, negotiations are taking place with four European satellite operators. Replacing Starlink terminals across a 1,000km frontline would take time, the paper noted.

Musk later said on Sunday said that no matter how much he disagreed on Ukraine policy, Starlink would never turn off its terminals. “We would never do such a thing or use it as a bargaining chip,” he wrote on X.

More than 20 people have been killed in the last two days by Russian bombs. On Friday, several ballistic missiles  in the eastern Donetsk region, killing 11 civilians and injuring dozens, including three children.

Overnight, Ukraine carried out its own  deep inside Russia. According to Telegram channels, oil refineries in Ryazan and Lipetsk were hit, together with an oil depot in Cheboksary in Russia’s Chuvashia Republic.

The depot is located more than 900km from the Ukrainian border and was targeted for the first time.

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