Putin's game of war-making and bargaining comes to end

Many Russian elite groups, as well as the significant majority of the population, prefer the war to come to an end. Putin’s use of diplomatic camouflage to conceal his real plan to perpetuate the war dashed their hopes. The now apparent failure of this game is not only in gaining too little time to ensure a decisive success for the Russian expendable storm platoons on any of the battlefields. The greater failure is in underestimating the impact of attrition on Russia, which is struggling under the pressure of the long war. No matter what Trump may announce about U.S. action against Russia, the situation in the trenches would not change much, even if Ukrainian cities might gain better protection against missile attacks. The main impact will be to undercut Russia’s ability to sustain the war effort further, and there is nothing Putin can do to counter this deterioration.