Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said the current US peace proposal that heavily favors Moscow could “form the basis for a final peace settlement” in Ukraine.

Poland's armed forces have scrambled fighter jets and placed air defences on "maximum readiness" as fears grow that Russia is preparing for war against NATO.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says a US peace proposal has helped bring Kyiv and Washington closer together on the way toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, Europe's biggest and deadliest conflict since World War II.

Polish General Wiesław Kukuła warns that Russia is preparing for potential conflict with NATO, prompting heightened security measures and concerns across Poland and Europe's eastern flank.

Some of America's closest European allies say they're already in a gray zone between peace and war with Russia.

From the front-line city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia in the south, there is little doubt that Russia is making advances. But, battlefield monitors suggest the picture is not quite so bleak for Ukraine as Trump and Putin suggest.

Military capability of Western alliance remains 'formidable' despite questions around US commitment to untested 'mutual assistance' agreement

A full-scale invasion of Poland, in the manner Russia invaded Ukraine, is rather not viable, given Russia's current military capacities, Poland's military build-up and the collective defense guarantees of NATO membership, Michnik said, "however, this reality must not diminish Poland’s ongoing preparation."

While the U.S. has taken part in previous iterations of the military exercise, this year's U.S. footprint was smaller as allied nations are pressed by the Trump administration to put more into European defense.