MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Kremlin said on Friday that a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could only happen as a final step to seal a peace deal. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was unlikely that such a meeting could occur by the end of August,

Austria's Foreign Minister revealed that Donald Trump allegedly offered Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine to Vladimir Putin as part of a peace deal, but Putin rejected it, choosing to continue the war.

The Kremlin has been in a state of high alert for some time, and President Putin has been eager to reassert Russia's nuclear threat to the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to move toward a peace settlement for Ukraine but Moscow's main objective is to achieve its goals, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television in a clip published on Sunday.

In a significant sign of vulnerability, Russia has abruptly canceled its flagship Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg, a major annual showcase of military strength. -The Kremlin cited vague “security reasons,

Mr. Putin appears to be caught in the same dilemma, between seizing as much as possible and legitimizing at least part of what has been taken. Like Stalin, after similar doubts, he is likely to make the same choice — trusting only in force, not the West, to secure his gains. That might be a victory of sorts. But it wouldn’t be what he wants.

The Kremlin said on Monday that it did not rule out the possibility of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump if the Russian and U.S. presidents were both in Beijing at the same time in September.