https://arab.news/2rbqr
US President Donald Trump’s peace-making skills are being tested to the limit as he seeks to seal a deal to end the Ukraine conflict. Trump has spent much of his first 13 months back in the White House trying to resolve a conflict that is now close to entering its fifth year and shows no sign of ending.
For his part, Vladimir Putin continues to press ahead with his “special military operation” to achieve his stated objectives in Ukraine. Russia last week launched yet another missile attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, plunging large areas of the country into darkness during one of the coldest times of the year.
The attack took place despite Trump’s claim that he had received a personal assurance from Putin that the Russians would cease attacking Ukraine’s main cities for a week so that the country’s civilian population did not suffer further privations in the depths of Ukraine’s bitter winter.
Trump told a televised Cabinet meeting in Washington that he had “personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that. It was very nice. A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call, you’re not going to get that.’ And he (Putin) did it.”
