Moscow continues to throw cold water on the prospect of Putin-Zelenskyy meeting, and is insisting Russia have a role in security guarantees for Ukraine.

Russia rains down 614 missiles and drones in massive overnight assault on Ukraine, hitting a US-owned company near NATO borders and raising questions about Putin's negotiation intentions.

"We also think there's a significant probability of Russia's economy slipping into a technical recession in the coming quarters."

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that in two weeks he should know whether progress is possible in his bid to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine and he again raised the prospect of imposing sanctions on Moscow.

Russia’s top diplomat said Friday that no meeting is planned between President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, casting new doubt on President Donald Trump’s push for a summit to end the war.

But the cia officer in question, along with two others involved in that 2016 report, Shelby Pierson and Vinh Nguyen, are some of the most senior serving career intelligence officials to be purged under Mr Trump.

For years, Donald Trump criticized presidents for empty threats. He often pointed to then-President Barack Obama failing to enforce his “red line” on Syria using chemical weapons. During his first term in 2017, Trump called it a “blank threat” that cost us “in many other parts of the world.”

Russia’s top diplomat said Friday his country is “not ready at all” to discuss a peace deal with Ukraine—a blow to President Donald Trump, whose flashy meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have been a flop.