What’s the only thing worse than having a murderous dictator invade your country? If you’re Ukraine, it’s having Donald Trump offer to broker a peace agreement.

After two years of insisting that he could end the war in his first 24 hours if returned to the White House, Trump is now preparing to walk away from the problem.

Trump made excuses for Putin. Credit: Dionne Gain.

“If, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say: ‘You’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people.’ And we’re just going to take a pass,” Trump said on Friday, US-time.

Well, let’s see. One of the two parties, six weeks ago, agreed to a ceasefire as demanded by Trump. That was Ukraine. So the party making it “very difficult”, insisting on impossible conditions, is Vladimir Putin’s Russia. As Trump acknowledged weeks ago: “We hope to get Russia. But we have a full ceasefire from Ukraine. That’s good.”

Asked whether Russia was stalling, Trump said he thought “Russia wants to see an end” to the war “but it could be that they’re dragging their feet”.

The US president said that he recognised the behaviour, and he made excuses for Moscow: “I’ve done it over the years. You know, I don’t want to sign a contract, I want to sort of stay in the game, but maybe I don’t want to do it quite, I’m not sure.”

The whole world can see who’s holding out. Putin. And, despite Trump’s threats to put secondary boycotts on Russian oil exports, he’s applied none.

How much pressure has Trump exerted on Putin? “None whatsoever,” attests an Australian former diplomat and intelligence analyst specialising in Russia and eastern Europe, Kyle Wilson.

Ukrainian servicemen carry a body from a trolleybus after a Russian missile strike on Sumy on Palm Sunday.Credit: AP

On the contrary, Trump has given Russia special treatment. He granted Moscow an exemption from all his recent waves of tariffs. The two........

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