Pretty much everyone wants the war in Ukraine to end. A conflict unleashed on its neighbour by Russia which has led to an estimated death toll of over 100,000 on the Ukrainian side and beyond 150,000 on the Russian one is a tragedy of the age and a symptom of the long shadow of the Soviet Union and its uneasy aftermath.
But the question of how it stops, for how long, and on what terms are decisive. Right now, those terms don’t work: it is a hastily thrown-together pressure selling exercise by Donald Trump, which badly lets down Ukraine. Putting aside whether it is good for the rest of Europe (it isn’t) and more useful to President Putin (it is), this is a hiatus rather than a solution. For this reason anyone in genuine good faith hoping to end the bloodshed should apply a keen sense of caveat emptor.
