Major European powers threw their weight behind an unconditional 30-day Ukraine ceasefire on Saturday, with the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump, and threatened President Vladimir Putin with "massive" new sanctions if he did not accept within days.

It was a proposal that the Kremlin could neither outright reject nor accept, intended to force it into an awkward choice, revealing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s true appetite for his brutal war of choice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukrainian officials to finally bring an end to the war, which was a welcome sign for Kyiv.

President Vladimir Putin said, according to a translation by the BBC: "We are determined to have serious negotiations with Ukraine. The purpose is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and establish long-term, lasting peace with a historical perspective.

However, the FAB-500 munition crashed to earth on the Russian side just over 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Ukrainian border. It landed two kilometres from the village of Ivica, but miraculously did not explode and injure anyone. Local sources reported that the half-ton bomb was quickly removed and destroyed by military engineers.

As President Trump pushes to end the Russian invasion, two books look at the paramilitary Wagner Group and consider the shape of global conflict today.

VLADIMIR Putin has unleashed a barrage of 100 drones of Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to meet him in just days. The brave Ukrainian leader has said he will meet face-to-face with the

US intelligence officials have sounded the warning over Putin's plans for a 'significant' air assault on Ukraine - just as world leaders including Keir Starmer gather for crucial talks in Kyiv