Russian forces have taken four border villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, a local official said Tuesday, days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had issued an order to establish a buffer zone along the border.

Sumy borders Russia’s Kursk region, where a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year captured a pocket of land in the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II.

Creating a buffer zone could help Russia prevent further Ukrainian cross-border attacks there.

Meanwhile, a Russian bombing campaign that had escalated in recent days slowed overnight as far fewer Russian drones targeted Ukrainian towns and cities.

Moscow’s invasion has shown no signs of stopping despite months of intense U.S.-led efforts to secure a ceasefire and get traction for peace talks.

Since Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey earlier this month for their first direct talks in three years, a large prisoner exchange has been the only tangible outcome, but negotiations have brought no significant breakthrough.

Meanwhile, the Russian press had declared Donald Trump’s peace deal is “dying a slow death” as a key ally of Vladimir Putin mocked Western ceasefire plans by posting a map showing almost all of Ukraine occupied by Kremlin forces.

The Moscow-based daily newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets ran an editorial on current ceasefire negotiations, commenting that it believed the President’s “energy charge” had “gone flat” and that it would soon become “obvious” even to Mr Trump that any deal was in its “death throes”.

The bleak assessment was reported by the BBC’s Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg during his regular dispatch covering the nation’s headlines.

He added that the piece in the Moskovskij Komsomolets said: “The Trump factor was significant and strong enough to get Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table, but judging by the current picture, it feels like Trump’s peace plan is dying a slow, but necessarily painful death.

The newspaper continued: “What will happen when these death throes become so obvious that even the chronically optimistic US President cannot ignore them is a big question.”

With Russia’s growing alliances with China, Iran, and North Korea, Putin could be emboldened to test NATO’s resolve, potentially in the Baltics.

The U.S. military’s readiness gaps—outdated infrastructure, a shrinking fighter jet fleet, and a smaller navy compared to China’s—raise concerns about deterring a nuclear-armed Russia with 5,889 warheads.

Additionally, fears persist that a ceasefire would allow Russia to regroup for future aggression, necessitating U.S. military buildup to counter this threat.