The series of bad news continues for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: setbacks on the front lines, a major corruption scandal – and now a US peace plan that appears to have been penned by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is unclear why Donald Trump wants to be the Kremlin’s vicarious agent again, as he did at the Alaska summit. He is probably only interested in being able to play peacemaker again after the apparent success of the Gaza plan in order to secure the Nobel Prize. And the quickest way to end the Ukraine war, in his view and that of his inexperienced mediator Steven Witkoff, is to accommodate the Russians.
