The White House seized a rare chance to undermine Russia and build up regional allies as it built a coalition to support the Ukrainians.

Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office, Ukraine’s future course is shrouded in uncertainty as Kyiv loses ground to Russia’s far larger military.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Donald Trump's return to the White House would open "a new chapter" and reiterated a call for Western allies to send troops to help "force Russia to peace".

If Ukraine falls, it will be hard to spin as anything but a debacle for the United States, and for its president.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

The United States warned on Wednesday that North Korea is benefiting from its troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine, gaining experience that makes Pyongyang "more capable of waging war against its neighbors.

In the first trading day after Ukraine ceased the flow of Russian gas and oil, benchmark natural gas prices in Europe surged 4%.

Ukraine's Western allies will gather with President Volodymyr Zelensky at a US base in Germany on Thursday in their last such meeting before Donald Trump returns to the White House in less than two weeks.

Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary over the war with Russia and the expired gas transit deal continue to increase online.

The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records.

Joe Biden is expected to unveil new sanctions targeting Russia's economy as part of measures to bolster Kyiv's war effort before Donald Trump takes office.