The Afghanistan National Futsal Team will play its first match in the Four-Nation Brazil Tournament against Greenland, the National Football Federation (NFF) said on Thursday in a post on Facebook.

NFF announced that the match will take place at 1:30 AM Kabul time on Friday.

The national futsal players arrived in Brazil on Wednesday after resolving visa-related challenges.

The tournament features teams from Brazil, Afghanistan, Iran, and Greenland.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed senior veteran diplomat Alexander Darchiev as ambassador to the United States on Thursday, to lead a rapprochement with that has stunned Ukraine and Washington’s European allies, Reuters reported.

The Foreign Ministry said last week Washington had given it the green light at a meeting between Russian and U.S. officials in Turkey to appoint Darchiev, who now serves as head of the Foreign Ministry’s North America department.

That six-hour meeting in Istanbul last Thursday, where the delegations worked to try to restore normal function of their embassies, was the latest sign of a thaw between the two countries.

President Donald Trump has upended previous policy on the war in Ukraine, opening up bilateral talks with Moscow and pausing military aid to Kyiv after clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the White House last week, read the report.

Moscow and Washington had been embroiled in a series of diplomatic rows over staffing and embassy properties in recent years that Russia says has strained relations.

Russia has had no ambassador in Washington since last October when the previous envoy, Anatoly Antonov, left his post.

Darchiev, 64, has served two long spells in Russia’s Washington embassy and was ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2021, Reuters reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he appreciated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s willingness to sign a minerals deal with the United States and come to the negotiating table under his leadership to bring a lasting peace closer in Kyiv’s war with Russia, Reuters reported.

Trump said in an address to the U.S. Congress that Zelenskiy made the declaration in a letter to him earlier in the day.

Zelenskiy posted on X earlier that Ukraine was ready to sign the deal and talk peace and called a contentious Oval Office meeting last week after which it was put on hold “regrettable.”

The Trump administration and Ukraine plan to sign the minerals deal, four people familiar with the situation told Reuters earlier on Tuesday. Trump had told his advisers that he wanted to announce an agreement in his address to Congress, three of the sources said, cautioning that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.

Trump’s remarks suggested that progress had been made.

“Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskiy of Ukraine. The letter reads, ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” Trump said.

Trump said Zelenskiy had said he stood ready to work “under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts” and that he valued how much America had done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence.

“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you,” Trump quoted Zelenskiy as saying.

“I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Trump said, adding that “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace.

Trump has said the agreement will help secure a peace deal by giving the United States a financial stake in Ukraine’s future. He views it as America’s way of earning back some of the tens of billions of dollars it has given to Ukraine in financial and military aid since Russia invaded three years ago, read the report.

Zelenskiy was dismissed from the White House after being berated by Trump and his vice president, who said he should thank the U.S. for its support rather than asking for additional aid for Ukraine’s war against Russian in front of the media.

“You’re gambling with World War Three,” Trump said on Friday.

U.S. officials have in recent days spoken to officials in Kyiv about signing the minerals deal despite Friday’s blow-up, and urged Zelenskiy’s advisers to convince the Ukrainian president to apologize openly to Trump, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelenskiy said in his post on X. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”

It was unclear if the deal has changed. The version that was to be signed last week included no explicit security guarantees for Ukraine but gave the U.S. access to revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources. It also envisaged the Ukrainian government contributing 50% of future monetization of any state-owned natural resources to a U.S.-Ukraine managed reconstruction investment fund.

On Monday, Trump signaled that his administration remained open to signing the deal, telling reporters in a gaggle that Ukraine “should be more appreciative.”

“This country has stuck with them through thick and thin,” Trump said. “We’ve given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us.”

France, Britain and possibly other European countries have offered to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire but would want support from the U.S. or a “backstop.” Moscow has rejected proposals for peacekeeping troops.

Daniel Fried, a former senior White House official and ambassador to Poland, said the path to getting the minerals deal done has been messy, but it would deliver two solid wins for Trump – Zelenskiy’s statement of regret and the agreement of Britain and France to provide security and boots on the ground, read the report.

“Trump can and should take the win. He’d be able to say that he … got the Europeans to stand up in front of an issue of European security, which they’ve never done before,” said Fried, now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.