The White House seized a rare chance to undermine Russia and build up regional allies as it built a coalition to support the Ukrainians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Donald Trump's return to the White House would open "a new chapter" and reiterated a call for Western allies to send troops to help "force Russia to peace".

Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office, Ukraine’s future course is shrouded in uncertainty as Kyiv loses ground to Russia’s far larger military.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

If Ukraine falls, it will be hard to spin as anything but a debacle for the United States, and for its president.

Kyiv hopes coalitions among its allies will continue even if the Trump administration abolishes the Ramstein format arms aid meetings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, at their final meeting in Germany, urge Trump to not give up on Kyiv’s fight.

NATO has taken over air defenses in Poland from the US just days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, according to a NATO spokesman, with questions looming about the incoming administration’s approach to the alliance and to Ukraine.

The United States warned on Wednesday that North Korea is benefiting from its troops fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine, gaining experience that makes Pyongyang "more capable of waging war against its neighbors.

Ukraine's Western allies will gather with President Volodymyr Zelensky at a US base in Germany on Thursday in their last such meeting before Donald Trump returns to the White House in less than two weeks.

Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary over the war with Russia and the expired gas transit deal continue to increase online.