Donbas

Trump and Zelenskiy say they are closing in on a peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine, with security guarantees nearly settled but the fate of the Donbas region still unresolved after talks at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. At a joint news conference, the U.S. president said the two sides were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close,” while acknowledging that Donbas remains a “very tough issue.” Both leaders offered few specifics and set no deadline, though Trump said it should be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that Moscow will seize full control of Ukraine's Donbas by force unless Ukrainian troops withdraw — a demand Kyiv has flatly rejected as unacceptable. The comments underscore the widening gap between battlefield realities and diplomatic efforts to end nearly four years of war. "Either we liberate these territories by force of arms, or Ukrainian troops leave these territories," Putin told India Today in remarks broadcast on Russian state television ahead of a visit to New…