Melania Trump took the unique step of crafting a letter calling for peace in Ukraine, having her husband Donald Trump deliver it to Vladimir Putin.

Turkey supports efforts to establish a permanent peace in Ukraine with the participation of all parties, President Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Wednesday,

Ukraine’s Donbas region, consisting of Donetsk and Luhansk, is at the heart of Moscow’s goals. An industrial powerhouse in the Soviet era, it also has rich farmland, important rivers and a coastline on the Sea of Azov.

Putin seeks "a multilateral system of commitments that includes not only the West but also Russia itself," one expert told Newsweek.

At the top of Vladimir Putin’s shopping-list is the western part of Donetsk province, which is still firmly in Ukrainian hands. But it is not just the symbolism that is important to him. The real prize is to force Ukraine to abandon its strategically critical “fortress belt”,

Steve Witkoff says Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with Donald Trump to allow the U.S. and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate.

Russia said on Wednesday that attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without the participation of Moscow was a "road to nowhere". Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the comments two days after U.

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.