Russian armed forces on Friday claimed that they have captured another Ukrainian village after an increased military offensive by Moscow in the Northeastern Sumy region. The Russian defence ministry announced that its forces have wrest control of the village of Yablunivka, located around nine km from the Russian border, as part of efforts to establish what President Vladimir Putin has described as a “buffer zone” within Ukrainian territory, reported AFP. These advances come as the Kremlin has time and again rejected calls for a ceasefire in this over three-year long drawn conflict, rather has put conditions on Ukraine like shunning Western military support, relinquishing bid to join Nato, and giving up more land if it wants a peace deal. Russian armed forces appear to be close to regional capital Sumy three years after Ukraine forced them out of the Northern region in a counter-offensive against Moscow’s attempt to capture it.The city of Sumy, which is 200 miles north-east of Kyiv, was never occupied by Russia after the full-scale invasion, but Putin’s forces have been bearing down on the regional capital.In 2024, Kyiv launched an armed incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region, using Ukraine’s Sumy region as the staging ground. After Russian forces retook the area earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin ordered a renewed cross-border offensive to drive out Ukrainian troops and military assets.Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry reported that its forces had also seized two additional villages in the eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow claims to have annexed.