Is this the endgame for Ukraine?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hopes of being heard in peace talks with Russia have been upended, leaving him walking a diplomatic tightrope

- Shaun Walker KYIV

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had some tough days in the past three years, but the last two weeks may be up there with the worst of them.

Back on 10 February, in an hourlong interview with the Guardian at his Kyiv offices, the Ukrainian president was in a cautiously optimistic frame of mind. He said he had received "positive signals from the Americans" over upcoming negotiations. His team was working to fix a date for a meeting with Donald Trump, he said, and he was sure that the US president understood the importance of coordinating his position with Kyiv before talking to Russia.

Zelenskyy's main message was that it was vital for the US to play a key role in enforcing any potential peace settlement. If Ukraine was to be denied Nato membership, it at least required Nato-style guarantees that would deter Vladimir Putin from coming back to bite off more chunks of the country in a year or five. "Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees," he said, unequivocally.

But the reality of Trump's second term can come at you fast. Two days later, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, had ruled out both Nato membership for Ukraine and any US role in enforcing a peace deal. Later that day, Trump said he had conducted a 90-minute phone call with Putin, the outcome of which appeared to rip up three years of US rhetoric on supporting Ukraine.

It had been a "bad war to get into" for Ukraine, said Trump, suggesting it was Kyiv's choice to be invaded. He declined to say that Ukraine would be an equal partner in future negotiations, disparaged Zelenskyy's poll ratings and repeatedly emphasised that his priority was regaining the money the US had spent on aid to Ukraine over the past few years, bandying around figures that appeared to have been plucked from thin air.