But there’s a catch. The wargame at Cincu focused on land combat, in which NATO’s European members are self-sufficient. Even here, the US was present, offering the airspace control and logistical support in which they’d be essential in any large-scale conflict.

Russia has received what the U.S. and Kyiv have called an "updated and refined peace framework" to end the war in Ukraine and will discuss it next week, the Kremlin confirmed on Friday.

Russia is threatening to reject President Donald Trump's Ukraine peace plan unless "key understandings" from his Alaska summit with President Putin are upheld.

The Trump administration and Russian officials have secretly been hashing out a revised plan to end Moscow’s 45-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

Trump described Steve Witkoff’s reported approach to the Russians in the call as “standard” negotiating procedure.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that an amended peace plan for Ukraine must reflect the "spirit and letter" of understandings reached between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump at their Alaska summit.

A sanctioned Russian oil tanker made a U-turn on the way to Venezuela after a US warship intersected its route near the country’s coast, according to Bloomberg tanker tracking, raising questions about whether Washington could step in to curtail Moscow’s energy aid to Caracas.

A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-28 carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian crewmates, Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov in orbit.

At the International Space Station, the trio will join NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.