A senior Kremlin official says that the Russian police and National Guard will remain in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas to oversee the prized industrial region, even if a peace settlement ends the nearly four-year war — a possibility that is likely to be rejected by Ukrainian officials as U.

The Ukrainian leader said Thursday that there was still no common understanding on the land issue and that Ukrainians should vote on any territorial concessions in a referendum.

Ukraine and its allies are scrambling to keep Trump onside as the U.S. piles pressure on Kyiv to make a peace deal.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday that Moscow has not seen revised U.S. proposals made after the most recent talks with Ukraine, but that it may not like parts of them.

The president said he had exchanged “pretty strong words” with European leaders, while Russia signaled it saw itself as increasingly on the same page as the U.S.

The lawsuit was a warning to European officials who are racing to agree to a plan to use Russian government assets in Europe to lend money to Ukraine.

The European Union looked set to indefinitely freeze Russian central bank assets held in Europe, removing a big obstacle to using the cash to help Ukraine defend itself against Moscow's invasion.