MICHAEL KIMMAGE is Professor of History at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is afraid of the US, as heavy attacks have stopped since Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine,

Vladimir Putin once had police raid a cinema showing a film for breaching a very specific law. Putin has never been a leader to be far away from headlines, shown most recently by his ongoing public spat with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Putin will not negotiate as a loser,” one of his longtime associates tells TIME by phone from Moscow. “He knows that winners don’t get punished, and if he wins, all of this” — the sanctions, the tariffs — “will go away.”

Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, and Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, are expected to promise today to have their nuclear arsenals work together if Europe is threatened. Private equity firms have entered the $40 billion youth sports industry. Their investments could raise costs for families.

A concert in Italy featuring Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who has ties to Putin, is sparking a furor following protests by Alexei Navalny’s wife.

Vladimir Putin is convinced his country is strong enough to secure total victory in Ukraine. But the Russian leader is forgetting two crucial things about the current geographic dynamic.

President Donald Trump announced this week that the U.S. will send Patriot air-defense missiles to Ukraine and threatened new tariffs on Russia. Will Vladimir Putin back down? What should Trump's next move be? And what does the future hold for Ukraine? Newsweek contributors Daniel R. DePetris and Dan Perry debate: