As one might remember, last week Trump said that he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to not strike Ukraine for a week, and Putin agreed to that. Days later, of course, Russia unleashed yet another mass aerial attack. When asked about that, Trump nevertheless said Putin “kept his word.” Kyiv groaned a collective “WTF?” at this. One Ukrainian politician aptly called it a “mockery of our misery.”

https://www.biznews.com/global-citizen/ronnie-aptekerukraines-war-feye-witness

This week saw the continuation of trilateral peace negotiations in Abu Dhabi, where representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. came together to discuss ending the war. This is the second round of this specific attempt at negotiations — hosted by the United Arab Emirates, and taking place after a reshuffle in the Ukrainian delegation. What we witness is a performance, meant for one spectator: U.S. President Donald Trump. The Ukrainian delegation is forced to go on with it to show Trump that Ukraine is not an obstacle to peace. Russia, on its part, uses the “negotiations” to buy time and not give the U.S. an incentive to introduce more sanctions or increase its backing of Ukraine.