In recent weeks, as Russia continued its assault on Ukraine in frank disregard of White House deadlines and demands, there was hope in Kyiv and European capitals that the scales might finally be falling from Donald Trump’s eyes. Last month, Mr Trump noted that although his conversations with Vladimir Putin repeatedly led him to believe that a ceasefire deal was in reach, the Russian president then routinely went on to “knock down a building in Kyiv”. More bluntly, he has accused Mr Putin of stringing him along with “bullshit”.
It was ostensibly on those grounds that the US president set an 8 August deadline for Mr Putin to agree to a peace deal with Ukraine, on pain of “significant” sanctions. Yet instead of being punished for ignoring this injunction too, Mr Putin has been rewarded with a summit with Mr Trump in the United States, and apparently allowed to veto any suggestion that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should also attend.
