Remember last week and that collective sigh of relief among allies that Donald Trump had a) showed up at the NATO summit and b) agreed to a sidebar meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, after which the US president gushed that Volodymyr Zelensky "couldn't have been nicer". It was quite the contrast with that February White House ambush on live television that so spooked Europeans.

But that was a week ago. Now comes a double whammy: a pause in US arms shipments to Ukraine – officially to replenish stockpiles – but the freeze includes weapons and ammunition already in neighbouring Poland.

Add to that news the fact that Washington's lifting of sanctions on Syria also includes Russian oligarchs and entities implicated in the invasion of Ukraine. We ask about the ways Russia keeps exporting oil and cashing checks from abroad.

Read moreArms deliveries, sanctions loopholes: How Trump's recent moves benefit Russia

As Ukraine figures out how to resist without Washington's help, we ask about Europe's efforts. On that score, what to make of Tuesday's first phone call between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022?

Produced by François Picard, Aurore Laborie, Ilayda Habip and Alessandro Xenos.