Secretary of State Marco Rubio got into a testy exchange with a congressman on Wednesday after he repeatedly refused to directly call Russian PresidentVladimir Putin a war criminal. It happened during a House hearing when Maryland Democratic Rep.

President Trump has said the U.S. could step away from Russia-Ukraine peace talks if they prove futile. VP Vance took it a step further by saying the U.S. is totally open to doing so.

Few details were known about Monday's call, aside from Trump's reported attempt to initiate peace talks aimed at ending the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

President Trump said the tone and spirit of his two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday about the war in Ukraine were "excellent," and Russia and Ukraine will "immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire.

The UK urged its Group of Seven allies to agree a cut to the price cap on Russian oil, saying the move is necessary to put further pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said Russian President Valdimir Putin is playing President Trump "like a fiddle," at an Axios event Wednesday. Why it matters: Bipartisan pressure is growing in the Senate for the White House to give lawmakers the green light to pass a new package of sanctions against Moscow.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the war in Ukraine and other matters by phone for two hours on Monday. The conversation yielded no breakthrough on efforts to end the largest ground war in Europe since World War II. A ceasefire seems as far as ever.

President Donald Trump's phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin did not achieve great strides on ending the war in Ukraine