The Kremlin said there are reasons to be optimistic about a settlement to the conflict but that more work needs to be done.

More than three years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained inflexible, maximalist conditions for any potential agreement that would end the war. Putin said Thursday he supports in principle the idea of a 30-day ceasefire — proposed by the United States and to which Ukraine has agreed — but noted that its implementation raises many questions,

A Russian man was jailed for life by a Finnish court on Friday for war crimes committed in 2014 in eastern Ukraine, where his paramilitary group was found to have killed an injured soldier.