But summits and sweatshirts won’t make Russia a superpower. Only a credible show of strength can do that. The war in Ukraine was meant to supply this, but it has instead become a slow-motion demonstration of Russia’s decline—less a catalyst of national revival than a case study in national self-harm.

An early morning Russian attack on Friday killed three people in northern Ukraine’s Sumy region, a regional official reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow’s attempts to advance in the Sumy area had failed with heavy losses, and Russian operations in the region were being “completely foiled by our forces”.

Russia and Belarus are holding a major joint military exercise on NATO’s doorstep at a time of heightened tension with the Western alliance.

Ukraine’s drone campaign is intensifying, crippling Russia’s vital oil and gas infrastructure. Strikes on pipelines and refineries are slashing revenue, fueling shortages, and exposing cracks in Putin’s war machine.

The escalation by Russia in the war against Ukraine would be impossible without the support of its allies in the "axis of evil," reported Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Several people were injured after Russian missiles and drones struck various targets in the northern Sumy region, as the Kremlin intensifies its aerial bombardment of Ukraine despite ongoing US-led peace efforts.