Russia Extends Drills in Belarus as Putin Agrees to More Talks With Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine—Russia will extend its armed forces drills with Belarus simply because of increasing violence in Ukraine’s Donbas location, the governing administration in Minsk reported, as Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized a new round of talks with Kyiv in the midst of warnings of an imminent Russian invasion.

Mr. Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron explained soon after talking Sunday that they agreed to continue searching for a diplomatic solution. Russia has amassed as many as 190,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, which includes some 30,000 for exercise routines in allied Belarus that were being slated to stop Sunday. Moscow demands that Kyiv abandon its aspirations to be part of NATO—the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—and give Russian proxies a key say in Ukraine’s foreseeable future.