A senior Kremlin official says Russian police and the National Guard will stay on in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if a peace settlement ends the war.

Ukraine’s top negotiator is scheduled on Thursday to meet in Florida with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, two days after the American's high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to a senior administration official.

At least three oil tankers have been hit by explosions in what appears to be a stepped up unilateral effort by Ukraine to sink Russia's sanctions-dodging oil sales.

Dressed head to toe in army fatigues, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday received the news he had been awaiting for more than a year: Russia had taken over the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.

Russian forces unleashed a devastating assault on the Black Sea, targeting two Ukrainian ports and three Turkish-owned vessels. Kamikaze drones and ballistic missiles struck with precision, setting the ships ablaze and sending plumes of smoke into the sky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with military leadership regarding the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Russian media. Putin stated that Russian forces "continue to carry out war tasks and are advancing confidently across the entire front.

The Trump Administration has claimed that it’s nearing a deal to end the war, but, for now, the conflict’s essential impasse still holds: Moscow won’t accept what Kyiv can stomach.

Russia attacked two Ukrainian ports on Friday, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels including a ship carrying food supplies, Ukrainian officials and one ship owner said, days after Moscow threatened to cut "Ukraine off from the sea".

VLADIMIR Putin has ordered a hypersonic missile strike on a Turkish-owned ship in Ukraine in his latest act of petty aggression against Kyiv. Footage shows the vessel ablaze and billowing with