Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke cautiously about U.S. President Joe Biden using tough language to describe his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

In an appearance on the France 3 TV channel, Macron warned against escalating language a day after Biden while in Warsaw called Putin a "butcher" and added, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power."

"I wouldn't use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin," Macron said.

White House officials quickly clarified Biden's off-the-cuff remarks, saying the president wasn’t calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced Biden, saying "it’s not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia."

Macron said the ramped-up rhetoric is doing nothing to bring peace to Ukraine.

"We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation -- that's the objective," Macron said. "If this is what we want to do, we should not escalate things -- neither with words nor actions."

Ukrainian forces appear to have had several successes Sunday, retaking several villages and towns in the northern and eastern parts of the country as they continue to wage fierce counterattacks against Russian troops, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian authorities claimed their troops have retaken control of some villages around Malaya Rogan near Kharkiv in the east, close to the Russian border.

Ukrainian forces also drove Russian troops from the town of Trostyanets in northern Ukraine between Kharkiv and the strategic city of Sumy, according to the mayor of Trostyanets. Video posted online appeared to show Ukrainian troops in Trostytanets.

There is also a report from Ukrainian officials that two villages were retaken near Mykolaiv in the south, where Ukrainian forces have launched a counterattack near the Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

More than 3.8 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.

The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 8.6% of Ukraine's population -- which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 -- on the move across borders in 32 days.

More than half of the refugees crossed into neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold a new round of in-person peace talks, in Turkey this week, in a sign of some possible progress.

A member of Ukraine's delegation said the talks would take place March 28-30, while Russia's lead negotiator said they wouldn't start until March 29.

The two sides have been talking every day by video conference, officials said.

David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and part of the country's delegation negotiating with Russia, wrote on Facebook that in the last video discussions with his Russian counterparts, the parties agreed to meet in-person.

Previous in-person peace talks were held in Belarus.

Ukraine is insisting on security guarantees from western countries in any deal, with its lead negotiator telling a German newspaper over the weekend that such guarantees "don't make sense" without the involvement of the United States.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell