Earlier this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to build Europe’s strongest army – a tall order for a country whose military has undergone years of neglect.

The 28-point plan hammered out by US and Russian envoys and put to Ukraine this week came with a deadline and an implicit threat: Sign up or face the risk of being abandoned.

The gathering in South Africa comes as US President Donald Trump gives Ukraine until Thursday to agree to the deal.

The package on the table now is not art – or statecraft - in any way. It is a surrender to all the things we in the West have previously believed in.

With his new 28-point plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump is resurfacing his argument that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn't “have the cards” to continue on the ...