It was around midnight in Moscow when Vladimir Putin took a call from the White House about the latest proposals for ending the war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump had just spent several hours in meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and seven other leaders from Europe who had come along in a frantic effort to shore up U.S. support for the Ukrainian position. Now Trump was telling Putin about what he believed needed to be the next step: The leaders of the warring sides, Trump said, should meet in person and try to make progress toward peace. Putin seemed to have other plans.

After the call, the Kremlin issued a mealy-mouthed statement, suggesting that it might be worth “exploring the possibility of raising the level of representatives” in future peace talks. Whatever tha

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