内容摘要：“The road was very dangerous,” he says, “and all the cars had stopped travelling.”

“The road was very dangerous,” he says, “and all the cars had stopped travelling.”

Putin is keen to create the impression that Russia is serious about seeking peace - and he is keen for Trump to hear that message given Ukraine has accepted Washington's proposal for a more lasting 30-day ceasefire.It comes after the US president expressed annoyance with Russia's continued attacks on Ukraine.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and currently controls about 20% Ukraine's territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people - the vast majority of them soldiers - have been killed or injured on all sides since 2022.Russia is expected to begin a self-declared three-day pause in fighting against Ukraine on Wednesday night, in a move derided by many Ukrainians and described by President Volodymyr Zelensky as little more than a "theatrical show".

Russia's Vladimir Putin proposed the three-day ceasefire to coincide with the anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe – a public holiday in Russia on Friday known as Victory Day.But in doing so Putin has rejected a much more substantial proposal from the Trump administration for a 30-day ceasefire and negotiations – a proposal that was accepted by Ukraine.

Zelensky has in turn rejected Russia's unilateral three-day ceasefire and said that Ukraine will not guarantee the safety of a celebratory military parade in Moscow's Red Square on 9 May.

The Russian proposal has been met with widespread cynicism in Ukraine, where polls consistently suggest that about 95% of the population distrusts Russia.At the time of the committee’s report HS2 Ltd acknowledged the payments were a “serious error”.

You might have thought a megaproject costing billions would be a political priority. However, in 2017, Brexit was dominating the agenda and if an outsider had the impression that MPs were distracted when they voted through the country’s biggest infrastructure project, they’d be right.Philip Hammond told me: “I'm sorry to disappoint you, but HS2 was not the main issue of the moment. The government was teetering on the brink, trying to deal with the daily hourly pressures of the Brexit negotiation. Long-term projects were perhaps not seen as quite as immediately urgent.”

By the time of the vote, many believed the likely costs would be much more than the officially budgeted £55.7 billion. An internal government document produced just before the HS2 scheme was finally approved by Parliament in 2017 suggested the final figure could increase to more than £80 billion.Lord Hammond told us it would be unrealistic for every bit of treasury modelling to go before parliament.