True to form, ahead of the visit to Moscow by Donald Trump’s negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Vladimir Putin was keen to sound inflexible.

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Kyrgyzstan, he reiterated his demand that the Ukrainians surrender the remaining fifth of the contested Donetsk region, and that “if they don’t withdraw, we’ll achieve this by force of arms”.

Previously, on being asked about the degree to which the original 28-point peace plan had been cut down and revised following talks between the Ukrainians and Americans, he had asserted that every single one of the original points was crucial to Russian interests. New Feature

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This is typical Putin, though. Instead of seeing negotiations as a process where

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