Moscow’s battlefield edge is waning, experts say. But President Donald Trump seems disinclined to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine.

Kyiv. Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and dozens of drones at Ukraine’s capital overnight on March 24. It's one of the biggest combined aerial attacks on the Ukrainian capital of the three-year war, damaging several apartment buildings and injuring 15 people.

Until last week, a secretive fleet of ships ferrying Russian oil around the world showed no clear links to the Kremlin. That changed when Russia used a fighter jet in an apparent effort to protect a tanker.

Two NATO members have accused Russia of provocation along the alliance's eastern flank. Poland said on Thursday that its fighter jets had intercepted a Russian Su-24 bomber that performed "dangerous" maneuvers in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow would not allow Russian-speakers in Ukraine to remain under the rule of what he called a "junta" led by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

War experts believe Moscow is planning a summer offensive in Ukraine. Economic and military pressures closer to home could end up pushing Moscow into peace talks. A slowdown in inflation, declining industrial output and consumer spending all point to a slowdown in the Russian economy.

Russia is still refusing to sign up to an unconditional comprehensive ceasefire. It has no intention of returning any of the Ukrainian land it has seized, occupied and claims to have annexed. On the contrary: it's pushing for more.

Russia will be ready to hand Ukraine a draft document outlining conditions for a long-term peace accord once a prisoner exchange now under way is completed, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.