The Putin and Trump interplay is also a contest for the upper hand – or as Lenin neatly put it of such things, “kto kovo” (who gets the better of whom?).The terms of the duo’s dealings remain mysterious.

President Trump "wants to see a permanent ceasefire first, to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Donald Trump met Volodymyr Zelensky at Pope Francis’s funeral and later questioned Vladimir Putin’s commitment to ending the Ukraine warTrump suggested Moscow’s latest strikes on Kyiv indicated Russia may not be serious about peace,