Amid the maelstrom of executive orders, appointments, tariffs, threats and other initiatives of the last few weeks, Donald Trump is still promising to negotiate a rapid end to the war in Ukraine, and on Friday said he had already spoken to Vladimir Putin about it. It’s the right thing to do and he has a workable strategy, but getting there will be tough. The stakes are high, and if he fails, the war will get even more deadly – especially if he adopts a strategy of malign neglect towards Ukraine or, God forbid, attacks Russian forces directly.

The war has devastated both countries’ economies, armies and populations. Estimates put the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. Ukraine’s population has fallen by a quarter – 10 million people – since Russia’s invasion. This is “a stalemate … a protracted and bloody conflict” that needs to end, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, recently acknowledged.

Trump needs to convince the key parties to come to the table and then hash out a deal. The tragic situation that

© The Guardian