EVER SINCE Donald Trump vowed during his election campaign to end the war in Ukraine quickly, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European supporters have feared abandonment by America. Their dread grew on February 12th, when Mr Trump spoke by phone with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, without co-ordinating the details beforehand with Ukraine, and announced that negotiations to end the war would start “immediately”. He later said he might meet Mr Putin in person in Saudi Arabia.