Kyiv said Russia intends to seize half of Ukraine by the end of 2026, beyond the formal territorial claims Moscow made to the U.S.

Donald Trump dodged questions regarding the deadline for imposing further sanctions on Russia, as the Kremlin continues to reject a ceasefire in Ukraine. The American president has repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on Russia if he doesn't see progress in peace talks between Kiev and Moscow.

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.

It restated Moscow's demands that Ukraine become a neutral country - ruling out membership of NATO - and that it protect the rights of Russian speakers, make Russian an official language and enact a legal ban on glorification of Nazism. Ukraine rejects the Nazi charge as absurd and denies discriminating against Russian speakers.

Russian and Ukrainian delegates met in Istanbul on Monday for their second set of direct peace talks, a day after Kyiv launched a shock drone attack on Russia’s nuclear-capable bombers, in an operation that President Volodymyr Zelensky said was a year and a half in the making.