Ukraine yesterday agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Russia after negotiators met in Saudi Arabia. The solution to this war and the way to end it and to achieve the president's objective of peace is to negotiate. But before you can negotiate, you have to stop shooting at each other.

The US will “have contact” with Russia on Wednesday after holding talks with Ukraine over a possible peace, the country’s secretary of state has said. Marco Rubio said Washington will put the proposals to Moscow directly, adding that “the ball is truly in their court” and rejection of the plan would “make their intentions clear”.

The ball is now in Russia’s court. But Russia excels at grabbing the ball, pocketing it and debating the rules of the game before claiming the ball has in fact been stolen clean from them by the other team.