Russian forces made symbolic territorial gains against Ukraine, lending Moscow new bargaining chips in fitful peace talks.
US President Donald Trump has pushed for an end to the war, but his calls for a summit involving Russia’s and Ukraine’s leaders have largely stalled.
Trump has threatened “economic war” against Moscow if it does not make progress on the talks, and Washington has reportedly said it will provide aerial and intelligence support to a postwar Western force in Ukraine, but the Pentagon has in effect blocked Kyiv from carrying out long-range missile strikes against targets inside Russia, and Trump’s “performative diplomacy” is going nowhere, an analyst warned in Foreign Affairs: “In the Kremlin’s assessment, time is on Russia’s side.”