Silenced since the start of the war in Ukraine, former Russian liberals have hardened their rhetoric following the collapse of ceasefire negotiations. Once critical of the Kremlin, they now blame Europe,

President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will travel next week to Moscow as momentum builds for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.

But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, insisted that Kremlin officials still have not seen a U.S. peace proposal, even though representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine held talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.

The Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov confirmed there is a “preliminary agreement” for U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff to visit Moscow.

A Treasury Department analysis indicates that new U.S. sanctions on Russian oil producers have sent prices there tumbling, choking off a key revenue source that Russia has used to fund its war in Ukraine.

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Ukraine’s chief negotiator, in an exclusive interview, says conceding sovereign territory is off-limits in peace talks.

Russia has launched a renewed offensive on Pokrovsk, a critical city in Ukraine’s Donbas region. If Moscow captures it, the route to Ukraine’s “fortress belt” — stretching from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the north to Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka in the south — could be wide open.