Putin just sank a British cargo ship delivering weapons to Ukraine.
President Trump is probably increasing sanctions to pressure Putin to agree to a ceasefire at some point.
Putin is probably responding by saying that "normalized" relations with the United States would require lifting of sanctions. It's unclear if Putin is going to require "normalization" of relations with the United States as a condition of negotiating a peace deal with Ukraine, if President Trump plans to be the leader of the deal on Ukraine's behalf.
-PJ
“It’s unclear if Putin is going to require “normalization” of relations with the United States as a condition of negotiating a peace deal with Ukraine, ”
After Minsk Ii, almost certainly. And in any case, we are the ones begging for a deal, not them. So if our deal is to just stop and freeze things, and give Ukraine a security alliance with the west, that basically fulfills western goals and stops Russia from all of theirs. So what would be in it for them?
And they are smart enough to know that during a cease fire, the Brits and French send in their military, and one random motioning NATO announces that as of 0800 this morning, Ukraine became a NATO member.
Last but not last, the euros are stealing 200 billion of Russian gold and currency.
So basically, every reason for Russia to sign into a deal is not on the table that I can see.