Nearly three years after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, his troops are making steady progress on the battlefield.

I would say they are pragmatic and trusting relations. I can’t help but agree with him that if his victory had not been stolen in 2022, then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022.

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.