Donald Trump is planning to sell weaponry slated for Ukraine to NATO members. The Republican president has become increasingly exasperated with Putin in recent days and has laid into the Russian leader for prolonging the war.

Russia's foreign affairs ministry described reports claiming that President Vladimir Putin had encouraged his Iranian ally to accept a "zero enrichment" agreement on its nuclear programme as "defamation".

European leaders balk at a potential 30 percent tariff rate for goods exported to the US, while trying to refrain from escalating the conflict.