President Donald Trump designated Saudi Arabia as a Major Non- NATO Ally (MNNA) of the United States during a high-stake visit by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman to Washington D.C. last week, making the kingdom the 20th country to hold the status, a powerful symbol of close relations.

Business Insider observed US, Polish, and Romanian forces learning to use the Merops system, which has been combat-proven in Ukraine.

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.

NATO has for years deployed multinational forces in the Baltic states and Poland to deter Russian attacks on the eastern flank. The U.S. leads the multinational presence in Poland, while the U.K. heads up NATO's footprint in Estonia and Canada oversees alliance forces in Latvia.

A spokesperson for Poland's special services minister accused Russian intelligence Tuesday of orchestrating a railway blast that destroyed a key track on a route used to deliver aid to Ukraine. Jacek Dobrzyński told reporters that "everything indicates" Russian intelligence was behind the sabotage of Polish railways.

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.

As peace negotiations intensify, Germany has issued a stark warning that Russia may be preparing the option to wage war on Nato by 2029

Trump designated Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally during a historic White House dinner with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, marking 80 years of relations.

Ukraine and its European allies will insist that discussions with Russia on any territorial swaps can only take place once the war ceases along the current line of contact, according to people familiar with a counter-proposal that will be presented to the US later today in Switzerland.

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.