Putin would meet with Zelensky if this was actually very close to peace being finalized and having the meeting would be helpful in getting over that last mile. They're not even close and the whole point of Zelensky demanding to see Putin is so he can come out of that meeting and posture in his usual way. Would be a total waste of time for Putin.

without a foundation of trust, which is built at the lower levels of a negotiation, there is no point in bringing in senior staff. the narrative should be about probing and art of the possible. the fact that this is not the narrative basically means that the negations are not going anywhere. goom posted a piece about prisoner exchanges. that is a step in the right direction, but its not being widely "advertised" so well, we are where we are.

Zelensky has sanctioned Azov co-founder because “he adopted a pro-peace position".

Something is cooking.

Azov are reportedly quite upset right now because the 390 for 390 swaps that had 270 soldiers + 120 civilians released on both sides, included 0 Azov fighters

Western allies are no longer imposing any restrictions on the use of long-range weapons delivered to Ukraine for Kyiv against Russian military targets, the German chancellor said on Monday.

i.e. nuke them already we don't care

I don't see peace happening with Zelensky in a position of power and able to be seated to derail a peace process at any moment. To say the least, Zelensky has been awful for his people and proven untrustworthy early on to the western nations. So agree, Putin not going to spend a second on it until some changeup.

USA should have pulled out support of the shit hole earlier

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia/putin-trump-agree-prisoner-exchange-russia-says-rcna209155

Russia and the US have agreed to a prisoner exchange
aand that's all we know? No details of who, when, how many



so uh, someone for someone, or some people for some people

We (the US) and the rest of the western power structure is not really pushing for peace. We're giving Ukraine a longer and longer leash (Taurus missiles latest example) and continually shipping weapons to Ukraine while simultaneously calling Russia to come to the table for peace while Ukraine keeps maximalist asks. It's the same old shit really, not acknowledging the reality on the ground while asking the other side to basically accept terms that are more in line with losing a war.

That's not really a posture of de-escalation or peace and as I've said it before i actually view the mineral deal as Ukraine/Zelensky perceiving it as we can continue our war now that we secured US support by giving them mineral rights. The mineral deal removed the threat of losing support that would cause actual concessions/actual posture change towards peace.

There is nothing much we can do about it now. I think Ukraine / Russia have come to a point where so many lives are unnecessarily sacrificed, peace will not be possible in near future even if the war stops.
I mean people are still talking about Holodomor so...