U.S. President Donald Trump started the week declaring a diplomatic breakthrough in his bid to prod Moscow and Kyiv closer to peace, announcing he had begun arranging for direct talks between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

President Donald Trump offered his assurances that U.S. troops would not be sent to Ukraine to defend against Russia, after seeming to leave open the possibility.

Children that Ukraine says were taken by Russia are at the heart of peace talks thanks to a monthslong effort by Western officials and evangelical Christian groups.

Just after noon, European leaders including Macron, Starmer, von der Leyen, Rutte, and Meloni began arriving one by one at the White House. According to the White House schedule, Trump will first meet with Zelensky at 1:15 p.m. before greeting the European leaders, followed by a multilateral meeting with all parties at 3:00 p.m.

Nahal Toosi is POLITICO’s senior foreign affairs correspondent. She has reported on war, genocide and political chaos in a career that has taken her around the world. Her reported column, Compass, delves into the decision-making of the global national security and foreign policy establishment — and the fallout that comes from it.

President Trump offered a new—and familiar—deadline for the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to move forward with a peace process or else face possible U.S. retaliation, saying he’d make a determination within “two weeks.

Russia's top military and political officials joined Putin in the closed city of Sarov, which houses the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, on Aug. 22.

The summits in Anchorage and Washington filled the family in the besieged city of Kharkiv with hope that peace would come at long last. Instead it was more drones.