O N DECEMBER 4th, as The Economist went to press, Vladimir Putin was due to touch down in Delhi for the 23rd instalment of the India-Russia summit, an annual affair with many manly hugs and lots of bonhomie.

Moscow is fine with the United States-backed peace proposal to end the longdrawn Russia-Ukraine conflict, however, Kyiv is yet to accept it, said US President Donald Trump. US President Donald Trump said, "...Russia and Ukraine, I thought it was going to be a little bit easier, but it's not being made easy..."

Trump's Venezuela strategy targets Putin's allies, potentially creating leverage to end the Ukraine war through weakening Russia's client states.

Here are four things the U.S. could do to help bring an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, writes Michael McFaul.

Vladimir Putin does not want a deal, and the sweetness of being begged to entertain one is something the Russian president relishes. Five hours of US President Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law meeting with the Kremlin head seemed to yield little publicly.

The Ukraine peace plan negotiated between the U.S. and Russia is a non-starter for Ukraine, and also puts the country in the unenviable position of saying no to a mercurial American president.

The Russian President's India trip comes as relations between Washington and Delhi remain strained, writes Harsh V. Pant.

President Donald Trump said that the Moscow talks on resolving the war in Ukraine were “reasonably good” and that his negotiators say Putin wants an agreement.