The Trump melodrama: Relief is at hand

Nobody had been bothering for the past three years, but then along came Donald Trump, determined to shape a “peace deal” between two countries about which he knows little and cares less. Why? Just to win a bauble called the Nobel Peace Prize, because Barack Obama got it first and that wasn’t fair.

- Gwynne Dyer

The United States is the world’s greatest military and economic power, and all that power is now at the disposal of a vain and ignorant man who wants the prize, so he cannot be ignored.

For the past six months, therefore, Russia and Ukraine have both been pretending that they are ready to negotiate a peace settlement, but neither of them really wants it now.

The Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, staked everything on winning his “war of choice”, which was supposed to last only three days.

His plan for a brilliant surprise attack and a speedy victory fell apart when the Ukrainians actually fought back.

Three-and-a-half years and at least a quarter-million dead Russians later, he must have a very big victory to justify the carnage, and he cannot stop until he gets it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cannot let him have that victory, because it would mean the end of an independent Ukraine.

The whole idea of a separate Ukrainian identity, in Mr Putin’s mind, is an obscenity which it is his historical duty to reverse.