Despite losing slivers of territory, Ukraine is confident about its long-term prospects in the war and its military and diplomatic successes against Russian energy will only strengthen that belief. The European Union is preparing to adopt a new round of sweeping sanctions against Russian energy exports on Thursday, a day after United States President Donald Trump imposed similar measures against Moscow amid setbacks to his efforts at diplomacy with Vladimir Putin.
A day later Trump held a tense meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and made clear he wants both Russia and Ukraine to stop the war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also expected to meet within days with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, ahead of the leaders summit. A phone call between Rubio and Lavrov on Monday ended with no agreement on a meeting or progress toward a summit between Putin and Trump.