The deal announced on Tuesday delivered new momentum to efforts to halt the fighting, with the ball for any truce now in Russia’s court, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Vladimir Putin has ditched his £7,000 bespoke Italian suits for a military uniform in an attempt to present himself as a wartime leader and align with the success of Russian forces. The Russian president is seen more often in hand-stitched Brioni jackets – as seen during a talk in Moscow last year – rather than in combat gear.

Speaking a day later alongside Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko — who brokered two failed processes to end Putin’s initial invasion of Ukraine a decade ago — the Russian president said any ceasefire would simply let Kyiv’s forces regroup just as Moscow is close to driving them out of Kursk.