German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has urged Donald Trump not to pursue a Ukraine peace deal “above Europe’s head”, as he offered to host talks with Washington on potential territorial concessions to Russia to secure a ceasefire.

But they spared civilian boats, even those carrying Russian oil from Russian ports to finance the Russian war on Ukraine. Only in the past two weeks has Ukraine set aside those rules of engagement. Amid the latest U.

Ukraine attacked Lukoil PJSC’s Filanovsky oil field in the Caspian Sea, according to a person familiar the matter, widening the scope of its strikes on Russian energy infrastructure just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is under US pressure to agree to a peace deal largely on the Kremlin’s terms.

Following President Donald Trump’s claim that Ukraine is “losing” the war against Russia’s ongoing invasion and that Russia now has the “upper hand”, multiple officials told CNN there are no new US or European assessments suggesting there have been significant changes on the battlefield and they don’t see any indications Moscow is likely to win the conflict quickly.

Zelenskyy is referring to the 20-point peace settlement proposal that Ukraine, the United States and European leaders have been working on for weeks. Ukraine expects to “deliver this document to the United States in the near future,” following work with the US negotiating team and European leaders, Zelenskyy added.

Russia's capture of Pokrovsk appears to be a matter of 'when' not 'if', and while its fall will not trigger a collapse in Ukraine's defences, it weakens Kyiv at a sensitive juncture in U.S.-led negotiations to end the war.

At least three oil tankers have been hit by explosions in what appears to be a stepped up unilateral effort by Ukraine to sink Russia's sanctions-dodging oil sales.

Millions of Ukrainians have been plunged into periodic darkness and cold as Russian drones and missiles wage a systematic long-range campaign.