But Putin has other, steeper demands. He has insisted that Zelensky accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which Russian troops seized in 2014, and recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Zelensky and his aides have rejected those land grabs and have demanded that Russia withdraw from all of Ukraine. But they have offered what one former diplomat called a creative compromise: While they won’t agree formally to Russia’s annexation of any part of their country, they will promise to pursue reunification only by peaceful means…
The underlying problem, current and former U.S. officials said, is that Putin still appears to believe his forces can win.
“Putin doesn’t sound as if he’s decided to settle,” Alexander R. Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told me. “He hasn’t given up hope that his forces will regroup. So now, instead of fighting everywhere in Ukraine, they appear to be focusing on one or two fronts, to see what more they can get” — a kind of salami-slice strategy.
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