“save Odessa and territory west of the Knieper River.”
*****
I think the deal is if they don’t negotiate peace, demilitarize, denazifi, and acknowledge the four regions plus Crimea belong to Russia BEFORE the the troops assembled to the north and east come in, then they will lose Odessa, be forever a landlocked rump state.
Odessa is the carrot.
Russia is going to want some access to Transnistria, too, in the deal.