Trump’s lead envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Steve Witkoff, has had similar moments of confusion. In an interview in March, he could not name the regions over which the war is being fought. “These so-called four regions,” he said, struggling to recall them. “Donbas, Crimea... You know the names.”

“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we all together win the presidency, we will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled. It will be settled. The war is going to be settled. I’ll get them both. I know Zelensky, I know Putin. It’ll be done within 24 hours, you watch.”

Kherson region. Late on May 18, Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern oblast, or region, of Kherson, killed a woman and injured three other people; earlier the same day, a man was killed in a drone strike on the village of Vesele on the Dnieper River.