Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a U.S. delegation is expected to arrive in Moscow in the first half of next week.

President Donald Trump’s chief interlocutor with the Russian government last month advised a senior aide to Vladimir Putin on how the Russian leader should go about pitching the U.S. president on a Ukraine peace plan.

The leak of the call to Bloomberg News has not gone down well in Russia, with the Kremlin calling it “unacceptable” and “clearly aimed” at hindering the peace talks. Russia’s defence units have downed at least 118 Ukrainian drones overnight, its defence ministry said in an update this morning.

Witkoff’s prep for Russia informed Putin’s Oct. 16 call with Trump when he warned of consequences of the arming Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.

From the front-line city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia in the south, there is little doubt that Russia is making advances. But, battlefield monitors suggest the picture is not quite so bleak for Ukraine as Trump and Putin suggest.

As U.S. and European officials tout progress in Ukraine peace talks, Zelenskyy says a key sticking point is letting Putin keep "what he has stolen."

Zia Yusuf has refused to condemn Nigel Farage’s previous claim that the west had “provoked” Vladimir Putin’s invasion Ukraine. Reform UK’s head of policy was questioned over the party leader’s remarks from last June,