Putin’s never going to accept this, and he is, in case nobody in the Trump administration noticed, winning on the battlefield. From Simplicius at simplicius76.substack.com:
The US and Ukraine have finalized a ‘temporary ceasefire deal’ during the Jeddah talks, which were meant to be a kind of conciliatory round two chance for Ukraine to amend for Zelensky’s faux pas. Hailing the ‘success’, Trump immediately announced all previous restrictions on weapons aid and intel sharing to be lifted from Ukraine:
The ceasefire agreement comes just a day after Ukraine launched the largest drone attack on Moscow of the entire war, with an estimated 400-500 drones, almost all of which were shot down, the remainder hitting civilian apartment blocks.
It appears to have been made for no better reason than scoring much-needed political points for Trump, who now wallows in a post-euphoric doldrums phase of his floundering second term, when virtually every one of his campaign promises has faltered or flopped. No Epstein, JFK, or 9/11 lists, no Mexican wall, no Fort Knox audit or UFO disclosure, no mass deportations, with ICE raids rumored to have halted, no promised US troop withdrawals from Syria, Europe, or elsewhere. Every other boastful attempt to capture Greenland, Canada, Panama, and everything in between has likewise fallen flat on its face, with countries no longer fearing nor taking the US seriously.
