Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said in a post on X Friday: "IVE SEEN ENOUGH KILLING OF INNOCENT UKRAINIAN women + children. President Trump pls put the toughest of sanctions on Putin. U ought to c from clear evidence that he is playing America as a patsy."

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held crunch war talks in the heart of the Vatican minutes before the start of the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, as the White House mounts an increasingly urgent push to strike a peace deal in Ukraine.

The US president says he fears the Russian leader is "tapping me along" given Moscow's strikes on Kyiv earlier this week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in May in the war with Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two.

It’s the second time in less than two weeks that the Russian president has called a halt to fighting without committing to a long-term end to the war.