Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, as diplomacy intensifies over ending the war in Ukraine.
Washington is "very optimistic" about reaching an agreement, Donald Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said ahead of the trip, after Ukrainian officials met US representatives on Sunday.
Yet both sides have indicated there's a long road ahead before resolving key sticking points, namely control of Ukrainian territory and post-war security guarantees for Kyiv.
Catch up on the latest Ukraine war developments here
Mr Putin implied last week he would stop fighting only when Ukrainian troops withdrew from all four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022.
Russia does not fully control these regions, but its armed forces made their biggest advance in Ukraine for a year in November, capturing 270 square miles, according to analysis by the AFP news agency.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said repeatedly that giving up territory is not an option.
Europe 'exposed'
He was in Paris on Monday for talks with French president Emmanuel Macron, who held a joint call with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and reiterated his support for Ukrainian sovereignty.
But the diplomacy set in motion by Trump's peace plan "painfully exposed" Europe's weakness, Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in a recent commentary.
"Despite being the main source of Ukraine's economic and military support, it is marginal to the diplomacy of the war and has done little more than offer amendments to America's draft peace plan."
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All the while, European allies have been the target of so-called "hybrid warfare", not least repeated airspace incursions by Russian drones and fighter jets.
NATO's most senior military officer went as far as to say on Monday that the alliance could consider a "pre-emptive strike" against Russia a "defensive action", according to the Financial Times.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone's remarks were condemned as extremely irresponsible and an attempt to escalate tension by the Kremlin.
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