Explosions shook Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday morning as air-raid sirens sent residents scrambling for shelter. An AFP journalist on the ground reported loud blasts across the Ukrainian capital after authorities issued a missile alert, underlining just how far the war remains from any ceasefire. The timing was sharp: only hours earlier, the US House of Representatives had passed a broad sanctions package designed to cut off the financial oxygen that President Vladimir Putin needs to keep fighting. The legislation targets Russian officials and critical pillars of the country's economy.

Lawmakers argued that squeezing Moscow's revenue streams was the most direct way to force a change in Kremlin calculations. The bill now moves through the legislative process at a moment when Washington's relationship with the conflict has been closely scrutinised — not least because Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday deflected questions about a Russian oligarch who reportedly paid for a party at Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding, insisting the president did not know the individual. In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called for a significant escalation of pressure on Moscow.

She urged member states to review the issuance of tourist visas to Russian citizens and to broaden countermeasures against what she described as the Kremlin's "hybrid attacks" on European soil. Her remarks reflected a growing impatience among EU leaders who feel that existing tools have not gone far enough. One voice struck a different tone. Finland's president credited Donald Trump with strengthening NATO by pushing alliance members to raise their defence spending — a reminder that the Western coalition prosecuting this pressure campaign is built on strikingly different political foundations.