Washington and Kyiv appear to have made notable shifts to secure progress, but big questions remain, not least whether Moscow will once again reject making concessions.

The United States is preparing a further round of sanctions on Russia's energy sector to increase the pressure on Moscow should President Vladimir Putin reject a peace agreement with Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday,

While Opec has reined in its growth plans, and supply fell last month because of sanctions on Russia and Venezuela, the IEA still expects a surplus of 3.7mn b/d of oil on average in 2026, an even bigger overhang than was seen during the pandemic.

The United States, Ukraine and major European countries have reached consensus on 90 percent of terms for a deal to end Ukraine’s war with Russia, two senior U.S. officials said Monday, but

Russia has tried to get concessions from Ukraine for this region but this would mean Kyiv giving up its Fortress Belt, the fortified defensive line which is the backbone of Ukraine’s defenses and Zelensky’s comments reiterated this as a non-starter.

During negotiations with U.S. envoys over a potential Ukraine-Russia peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday offered to drop Ukraine's NATO aspirations. Zelenskiy had said security guarantees from the United States, Europe and others instead of joining NATO was a compromise from Ukraine.

Ukraine delivered its response to the latest US-drafted peace proposal aimed at ending the war with Russia to the Trump administration on Wednesday, US and Ukrainian officials told CNN, as the contours of a tenuous potential deal take shape and the US president continues to make clear he wants the conflict resolved quickly.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he thinks the US would issue additional Russian sanctions and sell more military aid to Kyiv should Russia reject Washington’s carefully crafted deal to end the war.