TALKS begin in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday between the US and Ukraine following last week’s vituperative exchange between Trump and Zelensky.

This is a second chance for Zelensky to reach an accommodation with his country’s main patron and the source of much of the military hardware, munitions and electronic intelligence which has enabled his embattled and largely conscript army to keep the Russian army occupied for three years.

It is clear that Zelensky missed the point of the meeting, whether on the basis of his own understanding, or perhaps with his expectations inflated by Keir Starmer’s blowhard bid to recruit a European army.