With the Trump administration consumed by the crisis in Iran, Ukraine has largely dropped off the radar, despite increasingly deadly attacks from Russia.Speaking in Kyiv a day after 23 people were killed across Ukraine in the latest massive Russian aerial assault, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday lamented dwindling US attention."Today we are not in focus," Zelensky said alongside visiting NATO chief Mark Rutte. "Iran is the number one issue for the United States of America, and then comes the issue of Ukraine. Unfortunately, we are in the queue of these wars."Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the same observation Thursday, telling foreign journalists in Saint Petersburg: "We can all see and understand that the US administration is being forced to shift its attention and deal with this issue above all others."'No military solutionTrump ran for president on a promise to quickly end the war in Ukraine and invested months in shuttle diplomacy, putting pressure on Kyiv to make concessions and hosting Putin to try to nudge him towards a peace deal.
Donald Trump has dispatched envoys to Moscow, hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit in the United States and engaged with President Volodymyr Zelensky despite a strained relationship © Jim WATSON / AFP
