Vladimir Putin faced humiliation from his own side today after 'b*lls of steel' Volodymyr Zelensky stood one mile from Russian positions to show his forces control Kupyansk.
The move would allow EU leaders to work out at a summit next week how to use the tens of billions of euros in Russian Central Bank assets to underwrite a huge loan to help Ukraine in the war.
Putin called Maduro a day after United States forces seized control of an oil tanker in Venezuela as part of an escalation in tensions between the Trump administration and Maduro's government.