When your position before negotiation is demanding “unconditional something”, it’s difficult to find any kind of agreement.
Sorry to butt in but this is exactly the problem we have with Russia. They present maximalist demands, appear to be watering their position down slightly in order to sign an agreement, then unilaterally modify the terms of the agreement to reinstate the maximalist demands.
2021: Putin wanted the article 5 protection of four NATO members removed, leave them literally undefended against Russian aggression, and even had the nerve to say NATO can’t even train its own people on its own soil without Kremlin approval. Putin threatened to invade Ukraine if the USA said no. The USA can’t say yes to impossible , undeliverable demands. So it had to say no, and Putin invaded Ukraine.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky knew that would happen three months before it happened; he even told the Duma to expect the invasion to start before dawn on the 22nd February 2022.
March 2022: Moscow saw the deal that was about to be signed had only succeeded because it dropped the retarded NATO ultimatums, and insisted on its negotiators adding them back in. Of course, Ukraine can’t tell NATO to do any of it, and the USA knew it couldn’t deliver on these asks. The deal was killed by Putin before Boris Johnson intervened. That’s why the Russian negotiators quit.
We’re now three years on from there and Russia is STILL moving the goalposts either at the point of signing, or moving them hours after signing.
We literally cannot trust Russia’s signature on anything. They want all compromises to be in their favor and at Ukraine’s and NATO’s expense. That is unrealistic.
Most of Russia is bordering on derelict, notwithstanding it has maybe five cities in total that look like they’ve seen any redevelopment since the 1990s. Half of Russia looks more delapidated than abandoned Pripyat.
There is no rational basis for acting as if Russia is a great power. It’s got lots of nukes and lots of vatniks, but beyond that it’s got nothing going for it. “A gas station with nukes” is being too generous. It’s a dysfunctional gas station run by a bitter old space cadet, who fantasises about an empire that died out in the 1800s to the point of boring people to death over it, who then wants you to give him your car before he’ll let you fill up its gas tank.