I see pretty much no evidence that both Putin and Zelensky care if this war goes on indefinitely. Very hard to understand (for me) Neither one of them displays any motivation to end the war that I can see.
They care that Trump has stopped US taxpayers from for paying for it.
Now all involved have two choices...
Either find some other suckers to pay for their war, or find a way to end it now that it’s outlived it’s usefulness, but in a way that doesn’t give Trump the credit for putting a stop to it.
In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Zelenskyy and EU Allies Macron, Starmer, Merz and Tusk Unite Against President Trump Effort, Attention Surplus Disorder wrote: I see pretty much no evidence that both Putin and Zelensky care if this war goes on indefinitely. Very hard to understand (for me) Neither one of them displays any motivation to end the war that I can see.
Putin tried to avoid war with tactics like petitioning the UN to investigate the US biowarfare labs he was concerned about, or engaging in treaties, but the UN refused to investigate (with the US ambassador sneering at the baseless charges) and even Merkle admitted after the war began that they (NATO) only agreed to the last treaty to buy time to arm/equip Ukraine for war.
During the start of the war, Putin bombed the labs. Zelensky shredded all Metabiota documentation (Biden family owned lab in Ukraine). Putin tried to bomb Ukraine into negotiating, and Zelensky made a decree making it illegal to negotiate with Russia. Putin continued damage/pause/damage/pause in terms of public relations, trying to get Ukraine to the negotiating table. The Russian public saw this as Putin's 'weakness' as did Ukrainian agitators on Free Republic.
At some point there was a tone shift - Putin took the gloves off and no longer waited for Ukraine to decide to negotiate (he realized NATO wasn't going to let Ukraine negotiate?). From that point on, it looks like Putin is trying to obtain all military objectives so NATO doesn't try to restart the war. Since Putin is winning, it doesn't help Russia to ceasefire as Ukraine 'needs' to re-arm. Ceasefire benefits the Ukraine and is negative to Russia, so Zelensky is insisting on an 'unconditional' (i.e., so Ukraine can re-arm) ceasfire. Putin had wanted conditions on the ceasefire, which Zelensky vigorously refused.
President Trump has said (paraphrasing), "You know, you hear 'Save the Ukraine!' and then you see entire cities without a single standing building. That's a 110 year reconstruction effort!' Both Zelensky and Putin know this, but Zelensky is refusing to cede any land already occupied by Russia, and Russia wants to finish the job.