MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia’s army said Wednesday that its forces had captured another village in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, where Moscow has stepped up its offensive in recent weeks.

The Russian troops captured Novomykolaivka in Sumy, a settlement around four kilometers from the Ukraine-Russia border, the defense ministry said on Telegram.

The advance of Moscow’s army comes as peace talks have stalled and as Russia rejects the unconditional truce demanded by Kyiv and its European allies.

Ukraine has dismissed Russia’s demands as “ultimatums.”

Russia first tried to capture the regional capital Sumy at the start of its offensive in 2022, before being pushed back in a Ukrainian counter-offensive later that year.

In 2024, Kyiv used the Sumy region as the base for its own armed incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region.

After recapturing the Kursk territory earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to once again advance across the border to push back Ukraine’s forces.

Sumy is not one of the five Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have formally annexed.

Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday that its troops had also captured the settlement of Dovgenke in the Kharkiv region.