While Russian forces have staged a successful counteroffensive in the border region of Kursk in the last week, their attacks in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk have slowed to a halt. Ukrainians have begun launching counterattacks along that eastern line, particularly in Toretsk.

Russia will seek guarantees that Nato will exclude Ukraine from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral in any peace deal, a Russian deputy foreign minister said. "We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement," Alexander Grushko told Russian media outlet Izvestia.

Russian officials have communicated to their counterparts in the United States that they do not want Russia-Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg involved in top-level discussions aimed at ending the Ukraine war,