A FTER A WEEK of brinkmanship, Volodymyr Zelensky departed for peace negotiations in Turkey still unsure who he would be talking to. Vladimir Putin stayed silent for nearly four days, before turning down the Ukrainian’s dare of a face-to-face meeting.

Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday urged the West not to be divided on Ukraine and vowed to provide the financial means needed to build Germany's conventional army up into Europe's strongest.

Last weekend saw a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the war in Ukraine. First, European leaders assembled in Kyiv on Saturday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of unity to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire.