Putin keeps up the toll of death and destruction in Ukraine

War is such a cynical business. Diplomacy, too, in the wrong hands is also a very cynical business. Vladimir Putin, just known as Vladimir to his supposed friend Donald Trump, is the most cynical of all leaders vis a vis war and diplomacy. He claimed he was ready to meet Zelensky but then backed off as soon as he had returned to Moscow. He then picked up the phone to his military people and said, bomb, bomb, bomb. Sure enough, more than 500 drones and missiles, including hysersonic and cruise missiles, were showered on Ukrainian cities. The message was clear. Putin will never do a deal with Zelensky to stop the bombing unless the Ukrainian leader capitulates totally and hands over his country to Russian domination. Putin doesn't really care a jot about Trump. Trump thinks of Putin as his friend, but Putin is not Trump's friend. It's all show and cunning. There will be no peace deal, there certainly will not be a coalition of willing European troops guarding Ukraine against further Russian aggression. Putin would never allow it anyway. The mass bombing today just proves that all along Putin has been playing with Trump and playing with the West. Remember, his real friends are Xi Zinping, the Communist leader of China who wants total domination in his region of the world and is seen by the Pentagon as America's future adversary, Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator who is adding more and more warheads to his nuclear stockpile, and Ayatollah Khamenei, the tyrant of Iran who hates America and the West. These are Putin's natural bedfellows. The push for peace in Ukraine was and is a thankless and ultimately unachievable dream. So, everything in Anhorage was just a chance for Putin to demonstrate he is in charge of what will happen to Ukraine. Trump and Macron and Mertz and Starmer and Meloni et al are pushing against a concrete wall and Putin is safely on the other side, laughing.