Despite a troop shortage, Ukraine's military said it had retaken two villages in the eastern region of Sumy on Monday, part of a small reversal in more than a year of slow, attritional Russian gains in the southeast.

President Donald Trump’s meeting in Alaska with Vladimir Putin could be a decisive moment in the war in Ukraine and in the U.S. leader’s anomalous relationship with his Russian counterpart.

If everything goes according to plan, this trip will mark Putin's eighth visit to the U.S. during his presidency, a role he has held for 20 years across two separate terms. Trump is hosting the meeting to try to push Moscow into a peace deal with Ukraine.