Move over men !! Letter Diplomacy and wives get involved in peace parleys to end Ukraine-Russia war :::: Trump surprises media -- "...this isn’t my war. This is Joe Biden’s war"

No fire .... only smoke !!

** Bitter Truth :

The European leaders from UK, Italy, Germany, Finland and European Union were all smiles as they arrived at the White House .....

 but they were there to steer Trump away from being sweet-talked by Vladimir Putin into a bad deal on Ukraine and Europe.

Ukraine President Vlodomyr  Zelensky  played 'charm offensive' and even a 'family man' to Donald Trump's family at the washington meet and handed the US president a letter from Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska.

The letter was meant for Melania Trump.

"It's not to you — to your wife," he told Trump.

Notably, the 'delivery' of the letter came days after Trump hand-delivered a letter from Melania to Russian President Vladimir Putin during Alaska Summit.

In her letter to Putin, Europe's first last called on Putin to protect "the innocence" of children and "nurture the next generation's hope".

"She sees the heartbreak," Trump said of his wife's letter to Putin.

"She would love to see it end. And she says it very openly, very proudly, and with great sorrow, because so many people have been killed."

The EU’s most substantive pushback (in public at least) came as the leaders all sat around a table and Germany’s Friedrich Merz and France’s Emmanuel Macron both called for a ceasefire before talks over territory or a peace deal moved forward.

"As you see, I changed" -- says Zelenskyy

Given his acrimonious last visit to the Oval Office in February, the Ukrainian president went to considerable lengths to be collegial and charm his American hosts.

In fact, BBC reports Zelenskyy's sweet talks with Trump began with a flurry of six "thank yous" within the first few minutes of the meeting.

The last time he was at the White House, Zelensky was almost repirimanded by Vice-President J D Vance for 'lack of gratitude' for US support for Ukraine during the war that began in 2022.

Another point of contention in February's meeting - Zelensky's attire - also made a return.

This time, Zelensky was dressed in a dark suit rather than his traditional military garb, and appeared well prepared with a joke when asked about his outfit by the same reporter who had previously criticised him for not wearing a suit to the Oval Office.

After the reporter told him that he looked "fabulous", Zelensky shot back that the journalist was wearing the "same suit" as last time, eliciting laughter from the reporters, Trump and other officials in the room.

"As you see, I changed," he added.

Zelensky says he and Trump discussed Ukraine security guarantees in 'best' talks yet  

Ukrainian president faced a less combative US leader as compared to Feb meet.  

“President Zelensky, you look fabulous in that suit,” said Brian Glenn, a pro-Trump pundit and member of the White House press corps, who had attacked him for wearing military fatigues during the infamous Oval Office meeting in February. “I said the same thing,” Trump added.

“You are in the same suit,” Zelenskyy shot back, earning smiles and laughter from the room including the US president. “I changed, you did not.” 

 From Trump there was hyperbole about his ability to broker peace deals, digressions to internal US political battles over mail-in ballots, nebulous declarations about how he would end the conflict and evasions over how he would do that without negotiating a ceasefire.

But there were no explosions – which meant for Zelenskyy it probably went as well as it could have.

Luckily, Zelenskyy had some help, as he was joined by the UK’s Keir Starmer and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Finland and the European Union in order to keep the discussion on track and to prevent a similar meltdown as took place in February.  

Within two minutes of meeting Zelenskyy, Trump sent a message when he was asked early in a press conference whether Russia or Ukraine “had the better cards”.

“I don’t want to say that,” said Trump, who in February directly told Zelenskyy that he “didn’t have the cards to negotiate”.

Then, he went back and played the classics: “Look, this isn’t my war. This is Joe Biden’s war.”

The Ukrainian leader’s arrival at the White House on Monday had potentially threatened the kind of political fireworks – or some could say depth charges – that scuttled the Ukrainian leader’s last visit to Washington in February. 

Then Trump and vice-president JD Vance teamed up for a brutal takedown of Zelenskyy during which Trump told him that he was “playing with world war III”.