Donald Trump is being urged to move US nuclear weapons to Poland to deter a future attack by Vladimir Putin after his forces invaded Ukraine.
Poland’s president Andrzej Duda is said to have discussed the proposal with Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg.
“The borders of NATO moved east in 1999, so 26 years later there should also be a shift of the NATO infrastructure east. For me this is obvious,” Mr Duda told the Financial Times.
He reportedly added that it would be safer if American nuclear weapons were already on Polish soil.
Such a move would be hugely resisted by Putin and likely spark a new diplomatic crisis.
Russia has presented the US with a list of demands for a deal to end its war against Ukraine and reset relations with Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter.
It is not clear what exactly Moscow included on its list or whether it is willing to engage in peace talks with Kyiv prior to their acceptance.
Russian and American officials discussed the terms during in-person and virtual conversations over the last three weeks, the people said.
They described the Kremlin’s terms as broad and similar to demands it previously has presented to Ukraine, the US and NATO.
Those earlier terms included no NATO membership for Kyiv, an agreement not to deploy foreign troops in Ukraine and international recognition of Putin’s claim that Crimea and four provinces belong to Russia.
Russia, in recent years, also has demanded the US and NATO address what it has claimed as the “root causes” of the war, including NATO’s eastward expansion.
The West has blamed the war on Putin’s “imperialistic” ambitions.
Trump is awaiting word from Putin on whether he will agree to a 30-day truce that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he would accept as a first step toward peace talks.
Putin’s commitment to a potential ceasefire agreement is still uncertain, with details yet to be finalised.
Some diplomatic experts believe he will delay agreeing to a ceasefire, playing for time as Russia troops make more gains in eastern Ukraine and in forcing Kyiv’s army out of the Russian region of Kursk.
An overnight Russian attack on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region injured three people and targeted energy facilities of the state railways, according to local officials.
The attack on Dnipro, which injured three women who were hospitalized, also blew out over 100 windows in the city's apartment buildings, said governor Serhiy Lysak.
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that Russia launched one ballistic missile and 117 drones to attack Ukraine overnight.
The air force shot down 74 drones and another 38 drones did not reach their targets likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures, the military added.
Ukraine's state railways company announced changes to train routes after the morning attack on its energy facilities in the region.
Just days ago, Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on Moscow after its country was hit by heavy air strikes.
