U.S. President Donald Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia on Friday if there is no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, showing frustration at Moscow a week after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Russia's leader said he was "confident that the leadership qualities" of Trump are a "good guarantee" of future agreements between global superpowers.

President Donald Trump started the week declaring a diplomatic breakthrough in his bid to get Russia and Ukraine closer to making peace, announcing he had begun arranging for direct talks between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

As negotiations over the war carry on, President Vladimir V. Putin is pushing hard with tactics that have evolved over three and a half years.

Russia’s foreign minister says a meeting between the country’s two leaders will most likely not happen anytime soon, even as the White House promised a meeting between the two sides within weeks.

The same group of Russian naval vessels was tracked sailing from the Sea of Japan toward the East China Sea via the Tsushima Strait between August 14 and 15, according to Japan's Defense Ministry. Details of its week-long mission in the East China Sea remain unknown.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has paid an emotional tribute to soldiers who have died fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine, saying his ‘heart aches’ in a rare admission of military losses.

Russia’s top diplomat said Friday that no meeting is planned between President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, casting new doubt on President Donald Trump’s push for a summit to end the war.