Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had seen Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday and Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. [1] Monday, as Saxony-Anhalt's count landed, The Independent put the trips next to an AfD program that wants sanctions off and Ukraine aid ended. [1] Adjacency is not causation.

The talks were described as substantive on both sides and as producing no published agreement. [1] Russian officials celebrated the German share. [1] Celebration is not a ceasefire. A special envoy's memory of an incredible meeting is not a protocol.

Print the loop and the count in the same edition. Do not let either impersonate a settlement.

Saturday Moscow, Sunday Kyiv, Monday Magdeburg. [1] Three cities on a holiday weekend do not equal a ceasefire clause.

The Independent's service is the juxtaposition. [1] Juxtaposition is journalism. It is not proof that AfD voters moved the envoys' talking points.

Substantive, as briefed, remains an adjective without an annex. [1]

-- CHARLES ASHFORD, London