Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that if Moscow refuses to agree to the terms for ending hostilities worked out following talks with the United States and Europe, it will be time for Donald Trump to apply serious pressure on Russia.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News that he is "very much confident and pretty sure" that Moscow and Kyiv are "on the verge" of a deal to end the war, as U.S.-brokered peace talks make slow but steady progress.

Once again there is an impasse in the attempts to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. A five-hour meeting in the Kremlin between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the US team led by Donald Trump’s envoys, businessmen Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, has failed to make any significant progress.

The U.S. National Security Strategy described Trump's vision as one of "flexible realism" and argued that the U.S. should revive the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the Western Hemisphere to be Washington's zone of influence.

The US has indicted a Ukrainian woman for her alleged involvement with Russia-backed cybercriminal groups that have caused disruptions at American water and meat processing facilities, the Justice Department has said.

The Central Bank of Russia has demanded RUB 18.2 trillion (approx. US$229 billion) from the Euroclear depository over frozen assets. Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency TASS, as reported by European Pravda Details: On 12 December,