That will take some doing. Putin remains uninterested in peace talks as long as Russian troops continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s east, albeit at a slow pace, and while Ukrainian forces hold seized territory in the Kursk region inside Russia, according to John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and other former officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his readiness to engage in direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the ongoing conflict. He emphasized that such talks should include the United States,

Russia said that discussions with Washington were underway regarding potential peace talks to end the war nearly three years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion.