"Ultimately it is Russia's responsibility to end its blatant violations of international law. Russia's aggression and imperialist ambitions are the root causes of this war," the Nordic-Baltic Eight said after Putin's meeting with Trump.

As the front lines froze, and air defenses got better, Russia and Ukraine pivoted away from close bombing runs to standoff attacks.

President Donald Trump, who hosted President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for bilateral talks aimed at ending the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in early 2022, said that Kyiv should make a deal with Moscow because "Russia is a very big power,

Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by Russia's Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at their Alaska summit,

The US-made Patriot air defense system is Kyiv's best tool for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.