Russia has yet again ignored Donald Trump’s bid to hold a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky and said attempts to resolve security issues for Kyiv without Moscow’s participation was a “road to nowhere”.

Moscow continues to say that the presence of any western troops in Ukraine is unacceptable, however, and accuses Kyiv and European capitals of trying to undermine the attempts of Mr Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the war and rebuild US-Russia relations.

Moscow is preparing to raise taxes and cut spending as it tries to maintain high defence expenditure with Russia's economy creaking under the weight of financing the more than three-year war in Ukraine,

Ukraine and its allies are discussing proposals, including a collective agreement similar to NATO's Article 5.

NATO aircraft scrambled from Romania following a large-scale Russian attack on across Ukraine overnight, including in the Odesa region near Danube River border with allied nation.

Moscow has resisted a Putin-Zelensky summit and security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump’s claims that the Kremlin’s position has changed has left analysts puzzled.

Russia is sending signals that it intends to slow-walk a peace deal on Ukraine, showing some daylight between the Kremlin and President Trump’s intentions to end the war. From a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to suggestions of security agreements for Kyiv,

Trump is celebrating his White House summit as significant progress toward peace in Ukraine. Russia is celebrating something else.

President Trump had suggested a meeting between Russia and Ukraine’s leaders could be a potential next step on the path to peace. Russian state news media barely mentioned the idea.

Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov appealed to the leaders of the United States and Britain on Thursday after London imposed sanctions on Kyrgyz crypto networks it said were being used by Russia to evade sanctions against Moscow.