‘A FANTASTIC PHONE CONVERSATION’: President Donald Trump is a big fan of being told what he wants to hear, and both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have played to that character trait to stay on Trump’s good side while pursuing their own agendas.

In a one-hour phone call with Trump yesterday, Zelensky was heavy on gratitude while treading carefully about his reservations as he discussed the next steps in Trump’s plan to end the war and divide up Ukraine by ceding a large swath of the east to Russia.