The verbal shootout at the Oval Office last Friday brought out President Vladimir Zelensky’s fury that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are very close to a deal on Ukraine, while the conclave in Lancashire House in London on Sunday involving 18 European leaders messaged that Zelensky is in good company.

In a moment of candor shortly after the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s President Zelensky told The Economist, “There are those in the West who don’t mind a long war because it would mean exhausting Russia, even if this meant the demise of Ukraine and comes at the cost of Ukrainian lives.” His government was then involved in peace negotiations with Russia, but under pressure from the West, those promising negotiations were abandoned. Since then, the ongoing war—tragically unfolding in lives lost and people displaced (but profits gained from arms sales!)—may be viewed as a fulfillment of Zelensky’s chilling prediction.

By refusing to back negotiations for the past three years, the UK has become irrelevant to the search for peace – we must change course

Some fear a hero is in danger of becoming a tragic figure

Long rewarded by Washington and NATO for undermining diplomacy with Russia, Zelensky grew confrontational — and told outright falsehoods — when Donald Trump and JD Vance told him to make peace.

‘I did not vote for him and have been critical of most of his moves. But in regard to the war…I believe he is on the right track’

President Trump’s fixation on extracting elements from the war-torn nation is an illusion.

Ukrainian leader boxed himself — and his country — in with petulent White House display

(Bloomberg) — European leaders are confronting their worst-case scenario: maybe they really are going to be dealing with a bellicose Russia alone.

The United States has used two very different methods for discarding foreign clients that no longer seem to serve Washington’s policy objectives. One is to arrange a genteel retirement or exile in the United States or another friendly country. The alternative method is to eliminate the no longer useful client with extreme prejudice (imprisonment or death). There have been multiple examples of both solutions over the decades.