TRUMP: ‘NOTHING IS GONNA HAPPEN UNTIL PUTIN AND I GET TOGETHER’: Low-level talks began in Istanbul today with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meeting directly for the first time in more than three years. However, with Russian President Vladimir Putin declining Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s offer to go mano a mano to work out a ceasefire deal, expectations are decidedly low.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One yesterday, President Donald Trump excused Putin’s absence by portraying himself as the key to any progress. “Look, nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together, ok? And obviously, he wasn’t going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there,” Trump said. “I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we’re going to have to get it because too many people are dying.”