I hope this is the administration leaking this to prepare their backers for the push by the US to get Zelensky to negotiate and cut his losses... and cut our monetary losses as well on this war that Biden opted to extend
My pet theory is that Biden never really wanted a war and spoke his true mind when he said he’d be fine with a quick limited land grab by Russia. Biden believes in divisions along ethnic lines as evidenced by his plan to divide post-war Iraq into three regions back in the day. I think he saw Ukraine the same way — just let the Russkies have the eastern parts and be done with it. But I think he got talked into engaging in a proxy war by his handlers.
My guess is that Russia would be fine with just keeping the eastern parts in a negotiated peace agreement, and I suspect that’s what the end result will be whenever that happens.