Before his presidential election win last fall, Donald Trump famously boasted that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in “one day.” During the first tone-setting 100 days of Trump’s second presidency, reaching a ceasefire agreement that’s respected by both sides — let alone a peace deal — has arguably been much harder than the White House leader had anticipated. Trump has rowed back on his initial comments about bringing a quick end to the three-year conflict. “Well, I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration, because to make a point,” Trump told Time magazine last week. “Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest, but it was also said that [the war] will be ended.” To be fair to the Trump administration, it didn’t waste time in initiating discussions with Russia, and then with Ukraine, in a bid to broker a ceasefire deal that could lead to peace talks. As yet, there has been no real progress on that score. Talks are ongoing between the U.S. and teams from Kyiv and Moscow, but Washington threatened last week to quit negotiations if there was no imminent signs of compromise. The warring parties have continued to accuse each other of sabotaging a ceasefire deal and of not respecting a U.S.-brokered agreement to not target their respective energy infrastructure. – ‘Very critical’ week ahead’ – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the coming week will be “very critical” for the White House as it makes a “determination about whether this [ceasefire talks] is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in.” “There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic,” Rubio said, adding: “We’re close, but we’re not close enough.” Russia and Ukraine continue to trade drone and missile attacks  while holding separate talks with the U.S. Kyiv’s hopes to restore its…Read more