Donald Trump has once again repeated a set of mantras about his vision of world order that many observers believe have little to do with what is happening on the ground. Some of his revelations, frankly, sound not only inappropriate for Ukrainians, but downright offensive, writes the BBC's Ukraine correspondent Sviatoslav Khomenko about the press conference between Zelensky and Trump in Ankara.
In the fifth year of World War I, the US president has compared the presidents of Russia and Ukraine to boys fighting in a sandbox. He claims that Vladimir Putin wants peace. He says Ukrainians and Russians are not so different from each other.
But on the other hand, Donald Trump's year and a half as US president has taught Ukrainians to be extremely selective about which of his wordy musings are worth listening to. They have also come to terms with the fact that Trump is a living example of the proverb "either he will climb a checkerboard or he will climb aboard".
The main news today is that Washington will grant Kiev a license to produce missiles for the Patriot air defense system - the only means of combating ballistic missiles, the most deadly weapon left in the hands of the Russian army. This license is perhaps the main demand that the Ukrainian delegation presented in Ankara.
Journalists have repeatedly asked the head of the White House about the conditions under which Russia is ready to end the war and what Vladimir Putin is currently saying on this issue.
At one point, Trump invited reporters to ask Vladimir Putin a question, stating that he intends to call the Russian president. "When are you going to end the war?", one reporter asked. Trump admitted that he had never asked this question, but suggested that Putin wants the war to end "as soon as possible".
Discussing a potential meeting between Putin and Zelensky, Trump said that he had discussed the issue with the Russian president, who confirmed his readiness to hold such a meeting in Moscow. However, even Trump quickly admitted that Moscow was not the right place. "Will you go to Russia?", he asked Zelensky. "It's difficult in Moscow right now, with Ukrainian drones", the Ukrainian president joked in response.
And from Kiev's point of view, it doesn't really matter what Trump thinks about his relationship with Putin or what other metaphors he comes up with to describe the war that the Russian leader has started.
The main thing is that he will not oppose the production of Patriot anti-missile systems by Ukraine, and this in the long run means that Zelensky will have another trump card in his hand and Ukraine will be able to consider the Ankara summit a success.
Of course, there is one "but". After his talks with the Ukrainian president, Donald Trump promised to contact Vladimir Putin, and we just have to keep in mind the theoretical possibility that the American leader's determination to hand over the licenses to Kiev will dissipate after this conversation.