As peace talks ramp up, experts and officials are already working on a looming post-war threat: the potential large-scale proliferation of guns in Ukraine once they are no longer needed on the battlefield.

Russia and Ukraine have no direct peace talks scheduled, the Kremlin said Thursday, nearly a week after their first face-to-face session since shortly after Moscow’s invasion in 2022 and days after U.S. President Donald Trump said they would start ceasefire negotiations “immediately.”

Vice President JD Vance met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since their squabble in the Oval Office earlier this year.

Ukraine should abandon any notion of restoring its borders established with the 1991 collapse of Soviet rule or even those dating from the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion, the country's former military commander was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Valeriya Guzema says the thought of her new store, to open in September, has helped sustain her through the struggles of life in Kyiv.