For all the talk of security guarantees for Ukraine, the peace being looked at by the US president looks to be aligned with that desired by his Russian counterpart.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the idea of "raising the level of representatives" at Ukraine talks in a 40-minute call following the U.S. leader's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy,

Thanks to Steve Witkoff, Trump’s gullible envoy, Russia has already gone a long way to establishing its land claims as a sine qua non before any of the other issues have been negotiated. Witkoff returned from his visit to the Kremlin last week saying Russia was prepared to make a land “swap” as a concession.

President Donald Trump said he would be calling Russian President Vladimir Putin after hosting the president of Ukraine at the White House. Trump sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Monday before also meeting with other European leaders hastily gathered in Washington.

Trump said he and the Russian leader spoke last week about what they see as the problems with mail-in voting. Since then, Trump has pushed again for the U.S. to end the practice.

Melania Trump took the unique step of crafting a letter calling for peace in Ukraine, having her husband Donald Trump deliver it to Vladimir Putin.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised President Trump during a White House meeting on Monday for "breaking the deadlock" of the Ukraine War by starting a dialogue with Russia. "I really want to thank you,

"Trump flew to Alaska to talk to Putin about Ukraine for less than three hours, after which they held a press conference which went so badly even this Fox News reporter couldn't put a positive spin on it," said Oliver, before playing a clip of a Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich describing "the way it felt in the room" as "not good".