AS WE approach the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a monumental shift is taking place that might just lead to the end of this calamitous war. This is not a breakthrough on the battlefield, but a stark reversal of the US position from being the major supplier of weapons and funding to prolong the war to one of peacemaker. 

Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine if he was re-elected as president. On February 12, he started to make good on that promise by holding a 90-minute call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Joe Biden had refused to talk to since the war began.

They agreed that they were ready to begin peace negotiations “immediately,” and Trump then called President Volodymyr Zelensky and spent an hour discussing the conditions for what Zelensky called a “lasting and reliable peace.”