Trump says Zelenskyy is 'holding his own' as NATO prepares July summit

Donald Trump's latest take on Ukraine's war effort is... well, generous. The US president told journalists this week that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is doing "pretty well" against Russia, a sharp shift from his earlier suggestion that the Ukrainian leader didn't have the "cards" to win. "He's holding his own, at least," Trump said from the Oval Office. "A lot of people dying on both sides, but I think he's doing pretty well."

The compliment comes as military analysts increasingly agree Ukraine's forces are performing better on the battlefield. That said, Russian strikes keep hammering Ukrainian cities with brutal regularity. Trump and Zelenskyy last sat down during the G7 summit in France, where world leaders committed to turning up the heat on Moscow to end a war that's now stretched past four years.

Across Europe, the message is locked in. Germany's chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted leaders from France, Britain, Italy and Poland on Wednesday, plus a video call with NATO's Mark Rutte. The goal? Send Moscow an unmistakable signal. "Ukraine remains strong," Merz said at a joint press event in Berlin. He's pushing European NATO members to hand Kyiv serious cash commitments when the alliance holds its summit in Ankara on July 7-8. Thirty-two nations are expected, Trump included.

Ukraine's fighting back hard. Zelenskyy ordered his military and intelligence services to strike Russian facilities "pre-emptively" that support the war effort. This week, Ukrainian drones hit power infrastructure in Crimea's largest Russian-held city and targeted installations across central and southern Russia. The strategy: cripple Moscow's ability to keep fighting and force them to the negotiating table.

The human toll keeps rising. Two mine disposal workers from Norwegian People's Aid were killed Wednesday when Russia struck the Kherson region's village of Novopetrivka. Both were Ukrainian citizens. Four others were wounded in the same attack, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Back in Russia, dissent is getting dangerous. Maxim Kruglov, a 39-year-old former Moscow city legislator and deputy leader of the opposition Yabloko party, was sentenced to seven years in prison this week for posts he made on Telegram in 2022 criticizing the war. Arrested in October, Kruglov maintained his innocence throughout the trial. "This is essentially a ban on dissent," he told the court.