With Russia looming, governments race to rebuild armed forces that shrank after the Cold War, grappling with hard issues of economics, politics and military strategy.

Other differences include European leaders proposing Russia giving the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which would split power 50-50 between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine’s army would also be capped during peacetime at 800,000 soldiers, 200,000 more than in the American version.

When Poland announced that an explosion damaged a railway track leading to Ukraine this week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk was quick to declare it was an unprecedented act of sabotage designed to cause catastrophe.

From the front-line city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia in the south, there is little doubt that Russia is making advances. But, battlefield monitors suggest the picture is not quite so bleak for Ukraine as Trump and Putin suggest.

Top European and Ukrainian envoys have met in Geneva ahead of talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about President Donald Trump's proposal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The 28-point blueprint sparked alarm in Kyiv and European capitals, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying Friday that his country could face a stark choice between standing up for its sovereign rights and preserving the American support it needs.