Russia has repeatedly painted modern Ukraine as a Nazi state, in a crass distortion of history. Putin had already seized Ukraine's Crimean peninsula eight years earlier, after a revolution that ousted Ukraine's pro-Russian president and replaced him with a more pro-Western government.

The U.S. will use a high stakes meeting in Saudi Arabia to understand how much Ukraine is willing to give up, the secretary said.

We know how Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks about Ukraine. In speeches and written manifestos, Putin has rejected the legitimacy of his neighbor’s sovereignty and even its distinct identity. He sees Ukraine as part of a greater Russian nation,

The Kremlin has bizarrely claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not be able to join peace talks with Vladimir Putin because of a 2022 Ukrainian law. After pressure from the White House, the Ukrainian president confirmed " target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">yesterday that his country “is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible”.

Russia is asking how Ukraine could attend potential talks on ending their three-year war when a Ukrainian decree from 2022 rules out negotiations with President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin spokesman has declined to confirm Donald Trump’s statement that Putin is ready to "accept" European troops in Ukraine as part of a peace deal – as discussions on which countries will send them speed up.