Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump in a phone call Wednesday that Moscow was obligated to respond to Ukraine’s weekend drone attack, Trump said, setting up a potential escalation in the conflict just as the US president hopes to broker an end to the war.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Friday that the war in Ukraine was an existential question for Russia, after U.S. President Donald Trump likened it to a playground fight.

More than a month after Ukraine signed a landmark agreement granting the United States a stake in its mineral reserves, Kyiv is striving to show the Trump administration that the deal can deliver swift, tangible results.

Tinatin Japaridze, an analyst with Eurasia Group, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

The president told me he was optimistic about ending foreign wars—then he ended our conversation to take a call from Putin.

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The Trump administration shelved in recent weeks an inter-agency working group it had set up to formulate strategies for pressuring Russia into speeding up peace talks with Ukraine, according to three U.

But halting progress, ever-more deadly drone attacks and unmoving negotiating positions seem to have taken their toll. On Thursday, Trump used a striking analogy to concede the warfare was nowhere near over, and that he did not, at that moment, feel it was best to intervene.

Donald Trump said late on Monday his early departure from the Group of Seven nations summit has "nothing to do with" working on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, denying comments by French President Emmanuel Macron who said the U.