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Six people were killed in Ukrainian attacks in Russia’s Belgorod border region, local officials reported on August 25. Ukrainian authorities said several people had been killed and wounded in Russian attacks in the country, including employees of Western news agencies.

Meanwhile, in his night video addressUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces had advanced deeper into Russia’s Kursk region and taken control of two additional settlements.

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“I just spoke with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskiy, and there is an advance of our forces in the Kursk region — from 1 to 3 kilometers. Two more settlements have been taken under control,” Zelenskiy said, adding that “active actions” were continuing.

In Russia, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that five civilians were killed and 12 others wounded in Ukrainian shelling in the city of Rakitnoye. One person was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the village of Solovyovka, he added.

Gladkov said six of the injured were in serious condition, including a 16-year-old girl who was in intensive care.

The claims cannot be independently verified.

Earlier this month, Russian authorities declared a state of emergency in Belgorod and Moscow said it would send more troops to defend the region following Ukraine’s surprise cross-border invasion of neighboring Kursk on August 6.

According to Kiev, Ukraine has since captured more than 90 settlements in the Kursk region, the largest invasion of Russia since World War II.

In the Ukrainian city of Sumy, about 30 kilometers from the Russian border, authorities reported on August 25 that at least four people had been killed and 13 others wounded in heavy Russian shelling in the past 24 hours.

Authorities also said One person was killed and several others were injured in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions by Russian missile and drone strikes.

Donetsk regional officials said the body of a British citizen was found under the rubble after an overnight attack on a hotel in Kramatorsk, a city of about 147,000 people in southeastern Ukraine.

Reuters later identified the person as Ryan Evans, 38, who worked as a security adviser for Reuters. Evans, a former British soldier, had been with the news agency since 2022, advising staff on security issues in locations around the world.

Officials said four journalists were injured, including German, Latvian and American nationals, as well as two local citizens. However, this report could not be confirmed.

Reuters previously reported that several team members were at the hotel, but could not immediately confirm their whereabouts or status.

Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk regional government, wrote on Telegram that the hotel was destroyed and that “17 private homes, six skyscrapers, three businesses, an administrative building and a coffee shop were damaged.”

Russian strikes hit residential buildings in Kharkiv’s Balakliya, Chuhuiv and Kupyansk districts, as well as the regional capital Kharkiv, wounding at least 17 people and damaging several homes, local authorities said.

Russia carried out several missile and drone attacks overnight, targeting the northern and eastern regions, but Ukrainian air defense systems destroyed most of the weapons before they reached their targets, the Ukrainian air force said.

“Most of the missiles did not reach their targets,” the air force said on Telegram, adding that Russia had fired an Iskander-M ballistic missile, an Iskander-K cruise missile and six guided air missiles. It did not specify how many missiles were destroyed.

The air defense systems shot down eight of nine drones that Russian forces launched overnight over the Mykolayiv region, the air force said.

On the diplomatic front, Zelenskiy said on August 25 that talks with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Switzerland on a possible second peace summit are continuing.

The Ukrainian leader also said that during his recent visit to Kiev, he had told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would support if India hosted the summit.

“This applies not only to India, but to any state that is positive about organizing a second summit,” Zelenskiy added.

In mid-June, some 80 countries, except Russia, met in Switzerland to discuss the possibility of a peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev.

Zelenskyy has insisted Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be the basis for any peace deal. Russia has said that the conditions for ending the war are that Kiev renounce its bid to join NATO and that it must cede Crimea and four other occupied regions of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kiev has also said On August 25, Ukrainian intelligence services reported that the Belarusian armed forces, under the guise of military exercises, have concentrated a large number of personnel, weapons and equipment, including tanks, artillery, rocket launchers, air defense systems and technical equipment, on the border with Ukraine.