The European Union is preparing to adopt a new round of sweeping sanctions against Russian energy exports on Thursday, a day after United States President Donald Trump imposed similar measures against Moscow amid setbacks to his efforts at diplomacy with Vladimir Putin.These steps come as Russia and Ukraine are increasingly targeting each other’s energy infrastructure in an attempt to make it economically harder to wage war.On the ground, Russia’s war in Ukraine remained stagnant.Russia claimed it had taken another handful of villages during the past week – Tykhe and Pishchane in Kharkiv, Novopavlivka, Chunyshyne and Pleshcheyevka in Donetsk, Poltavka in Zaporizhia and Privillia in Dnipropetrovsk.On the whole, however, Ukrainian front lines remained resilient and Russia scored no major breakthrough.“I think that their army is weak now,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a visit to the White House on Friday. “They have a lot of losses in economy and people.”He urged Trump to use that weakness to force Russia to the negotiating table, saying he was prepared to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin one-on-one.Just before that meeting, Trump had spoken to Putin and had seemingly pulled back on previous suggestions that the US might supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles. After the call, Trump said that he hoped the US woul …
