The American visit comes as President Vladimir Putin visited Russia's Kursk region - parts of which have been under Ukraine's control since an incursion last year. Russian TV aired footage of Putin meeting military commanders, who told him Russian troops had recaptured 86% of the area from Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Russia’s occupied Kursk region on Wednesday, as the Kremlin considers a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with his troops closing in on Ukraine’s only territorial bargaining chip.

Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, dressed in fatigues, visited a command post near the front in Kursk late Wednesday to cheer on his military’s ejection of Ukrainian forces from much of the territory they had been occupying in the Russian border region.