British wartime leader Winston Churchill once said he was an optimist, as there was no point being anything else. The year ahead in Ukraine has given rise to wild, perhaps wilful, positivity from Kyiv and – publicly at least – in parts of NATO that the incoming Trump White House can effect meaningful,

Just as he once stated that he would resolve the healthcare crisis in the US easily, then backtracked to say “nobody knew that health care was so complicated ”, Trump’s advisors have now admitted the war in Ukraine can’t be easily negotiated.