Just a few short weeks ago, it appeared that a frustrated President Donald Trump was ready to give up on his efforts to forge a peace in Ukraine, which is now well into its fourth year of fighting with no end in sight.

For months, Trump grumped about his “disappointment” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he accused of “tapping him along” and who embarrassed him at the Alaska summit, returning Trump’s over-the-top hospitality by snubbing a luncheon planned in his honor and returning to Moscow without making a single concession.