That he walked away from the meeting effectively empty handed (no ceasefire agreement has been reached at the time of writing) is perhaps not surprising given how steadfast Putin and Russia seem to be regarding their goals with the invasion of Ukraine, but the US president did say he and his Russian counterpart had made “great progress”.

For his part, Putin reportedly wants Ukraine to cede large swathes of territory to him, extending even to parts of the country his troops have failed to occupy. Needless to say, this is hardly something Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is willing to agree to.

It’s a notoriously difficult situation to mediate (hence why any and all attempts at finding some sort of common ground have thus far failed) but Trump, as is so often the case, is confident he