By Tom Balmforth, Andreas Rinke, John Irish KYIV/BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) -For Ukraine and its allies, who spent months trying to win Donald Trump over to their cause in the war started by Russia, it is back to square one.

Vladimir Putin has unleashed one of the largest-scale attacks on Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion – just days after the first in-person negotiations for a ceasefire. Apocalyptic scenes unfolded in Kyiv during the bombardment with Russian missiles and drones that lasted for more than seven hours.

A telephone call between the two leaders was the latest chapter in a flurry of diplomatic maneuvering over ending the three-year conflict.