Joe Biden indicated he is willing to talk to Putin about the war in Ukraine on Thursday during a joint press conference with French President Macron at the White House. His willingness to talk had a couple of conditions, though – it would only be in consultation with NATO allies and only if the Putin indicated he was “looking for a way to end the war.” Biden made it clear he doesn’t want to do anything on his own.

Biden and Macron provided a united front in their support of Ukraine. Macron fancies himself a negotiator and Biden’s response to a reporter’s question likely was given with respect to Macron’s outreach. Biden noted that Putin has not shown any interest in ending his war in Ukraine but, if he does, “I’ll be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he has in mind.” Macron followed up by pledging that France will increase its military support for Ukraine. He “will never urge Ukrainians to make a compromise that will not be acceptable for them.”

The show of unity is important because winter is here and Ukrainians face long months without adequate energy supplies and rising prices. European countries are scrambling to find new sources of energy.

French officials said that during a three-hour closed meeting, Mr. Biden and Mr. Macron agreed that more Ukrainian battlefield gains would constitute important leverage in any talks with Moscow. In practice, the idea of negotiation seems far-fetched at a time when Mr. Putin has nothing he can call victory, and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has military momentum.

“I’m not going to do it on my own,” Mr. Biden said of the possibility of talking to Mr. Putin, whose actions in Ukraine he called “sick.”

Mr. Macron was effusive in his support of Ukraine and its right to recover its full sovereignty, and there was no hint of his earlier calls for the need to avoid “humiliating” Russia. “If we want sustainable peace, we have to respect the Ukrainians to decide the moment and the conditions in which they will negotiate about their territory and their future,” Mr. Macron said.

During a lunch for Macron at the State Department, Secretary of State Blinken stressed the importance of the two countries working to defend liberty and democratic societies. It’s important to note that Macron’s tone Thursday was more amiable than on Wednesday when he began his visit to D.C. by blasting Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) legislation. Macron said that the IRA would kill European jobs because of the massive subsidies for green manufacturing. He said it could end up “fragmenting the West” which would not be good for Europe or for united support for Ukraine. The Biden administration was taken aback by Macron’s criticism.

Let’s face it, the Biden administration isn’t prepared for much of anything. The love fest between Macron and Biden is because Biden is kissing Macron’s butt in order to be in his good graces. Macron was right, though, to slam the IRA as a job-killing climate bill, just as Republicans have done here.

So, in response to Biden’s remarks, a Kremlin spokesman issued a statement. The sticking point is over annexed territory in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “The president of the Russian Federation has always been, is and remains open to negotiations in order to ensure our interests.”

Peskov said the U.S. refusal to recognise annexed territory in Ukraine as Russian was hindering a search for ways to end the war. Moscow has previously sought sweeping security guarantees including a reversal of NATO’s eastern enlargement.

Putin spoke to German Chancellor Scholz today.

Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call on Friday that the Western line on Ukraine was “destructive” and urged Berlin to rethink its approach, the Kremlin said.

In Berlin’s readout on the call, Scholz’s spokesperson said the chancellor had condemned Russian air strikes against civilian infrastructure and called for a diplomatic solution to the war “including a withdrawal of Russian troops”.

Putin has said he has no regrets about launching what he calls a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine. He casts the war as a watershed moment when Russia finally stood up to an arrogant West after decades of humiliation following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Zelensky has been clear from the start that Ukraine will fight to the bitter end, until every last Russian soldier is expelled from the country. Macron said he will continue talking to Putin to try to prevent escalation of the war. One focus is on the safety of nuclear plants. Both Biden and Macron said they will hold Putin accountable “for widely documented atrocities and war crimes, committed both by its regular armed forces and by its proxies” in Ukraine.

Nothing has changed. Putin’s war continues. We’ll see if Macron can do any good once he returns home. In the meantime, it’s clear that Biden is not stepping up in any kind of leadership role, though the United States taxpayers are providing the lion’s share of financial and military aid to Ukraine. He’s content to sit back and let Macron and other NATO partners do the heavy lifting.