Russia has yet again ignored Donald Trump’s bid to hold a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky and said attempts to resolve security issues for Kyiv without Moscow’s participation was a “road to nowhere”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian drone strike on Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded 14 people, including a family with three young children, overnight into Wednesday, August 20.

Moscow has resisted a Putin-Zelensky summit and security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump’s claims that the Kremlin’s position has changed has left analysts puzzled.

Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin could meet for the first time in six years in the hope of ending the Ukraine war - but it remains unclear just where the two leaders will come face-to-face. The White House is in the process of selecting a location for the potential meeting, that has been championed by the US president Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump made some false claims to the press while meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday – including a long-debunked claim that the US has given Ukraine more than $300 billion in wartime aid.

President Trump has offered only vague assurances of security guarantees for Ukraine if President Volodymyr Zelensky agrees to cut a deal with Russia.

If anyone could convince him to change his look, it would be me,” said Viktor Anisimov, who was working to transform the Ukrainian president’s look even before it was questioned at a White House meeting.

Zaluzhnyi is Ukraine's most trusted public figure with recent polling finding 73 per cent of Ukrainians trust him compared with 67 per cent for Zelensky. The Ukrainian Embassy was contacted for comment.