A delegation of U.S. senators was returning Wednesday from a trip to Ukraine, hoping to spur action in Congress for a series of sanctions meant to economically cripple Moscow and pressure President Vladimir Putin to make key concessions in peace talks.

The commander of the U.S. military — and NATO forces — in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, and Secretary of the U.S. Army Dan Driscoll will attend the meeting in Geneva on behalf of the U.S. military and meet with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, said Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for the U.S. commander.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the United States wants a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia by early summer, despite repeated rounds of talks failing to reach a breakthrough over the issues of territory and security guarantees.

U.S.-brokered Ukraine-Russia peace talks wrap up with little to show, and Zelenskyy accusing Moscow of playing for time

Iran has been joined by Russia and China in deploying naval vessels for a joint live-fire exercise in the Strait

Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities again overnight as Ukraine accuses Russia of dragging its feet on new U.S.-brokered peace talks.

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Russia plans to seek clarification from the United States about new U.S. restrictions on Venezuela's oil business, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday issued a general license to facilitate the exploration and production of oil and gas in Venezuela.

The expiration of the last remaining nuclear treaty between the United States and Russia on Thursday has sparked fears about a nuclear arms race, with the two biggest nuclear superpowers without limits on their arsenals for the first time in decades.

Russia's top diplomat says that Moscow will observe the limits of the last nuclear arms pact with the United States that expired last week as long as it sees that Washington does the same.

A Russian court has sentenced a U.S. citizen to four years in jail for trying to take the stocks of Kalashnikov assault rifles out of a Moscow airport, the RIA state news agency reported on Tuesday.