With only a few hours to go until the start of what was slated as the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in years – talks that Vladimir Putin himself called – it still wasn’t clear if the Russian president would actually show up.
For weeks, he had dismissed Ukraine’s proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, backed by the US and Europe, to allow both sides to start negotiations on how to end Europe’s biggest war since World War Two.
