US President Donald Trump on June 5 compared Russia's war against Ukraine to children fighting in comments during a visit by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, telling reporters at the White House that “sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while.

But halting progress, ever-more deadly drone attacks and unmoving negotiating positions seem to have taken their toll. On Thursday, Trump used a striking analogy to concede the warfare was nowhere near over, and that he did not, at that moment, feel it was best to intervene.

By Christian Lowe, Dmitry Antonov and Anastasiia Malenko KYIV/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Ukraine resisted U.S. and Russian pressure to commit to attending another round of peace talks on Monday, saying it first needed to see Russian proposals,