Ukrainian officials fear an alignment between Washington and Moscow could shut them out of the discussion about their country’s future.

The Kremlin's immediate priority seems to be in stabilising the situation across the border, trying to keep brotherly Belarus, broadly, in Moscow's orbit and making sure disgruntled Russians do ...

The agreement is similar to the one Moscow signed with North Korea last year - as Vladimir Putin attempts to show the world is changing, and that, in his view, the US-led global order is crumbling.