A senior Russian military official was killed in a car explosion near Moscow, as Vladimir Putin began a high-stakes meeting over the Russia-Ukraine war with Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, at the Kremlin. The blast could cast a shadow over Friday’s talks between Moscow and Washington, and the latest apparent Ukrainian assassination deep inside Russian territory is unlikely to sit well with the Trump administration, which has been desperate to show tangible progress on peace before Trump’s 100th day in office
