The Kremlin said on Friday that the war in Ukraine was an existential question for Russia, after U.S. President Donald Trump likened it to a playground fight.

But halting progress, ever-more deadly drone attacks and unmoving negotiating positions seem to have taken their toll. On Thursday, Trump used a striking analogy to concede the warfare was nowhere near over, and that he did not, at that moment, feel it was best to intervene.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz encouraged the president in an Oval Office meeting to help end the war.

Ukraine’s security service released footage Wednesday of its attack on Russian war planes at multiple airbases across the country. In the span of a few hours on Sunday, nearly a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged with cheaply made drones sneaked into Russian territory, according to Ukrainian officials.

Pope Leo urged Russia to take steps towards ending the conflict in Ukraine when he spoke to President Vladimir Putin for the first time, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Russia’s ceasefire proposal as “an ultimatum” and renewed his call for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock ov