Vladimir Putin, who met Mr Trump in Alaska on August 15th, wants Ukraine to hand over unoccupied land in the eastern Donbas region, a proposal that Mr Trump seems to favour. Mr Trump has now embraced the Russian proposal to skip an initial ceasefire and go immediately to a final settlement,

Ukraine and its European allies have been buoyed by Trump's promise during a summit on Monday of security guarantees for Kyiv, but many questions remain unanswered. Officials told Reuters that the Pentagon is carrying out planning exercises on the support Washington could offer beyond providing weapons.

NATO defense chiefs held a “candid discussion" Wednesday about what security guarantees they could offer Kyiv to help forge a peace agreement that ends Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine, a senior alliance official said.