But Trump has given Putin 6 months while he waits to see if his latest sanctions will be enough to bring down the Russian economy.
He probably knows they won't but he also probably knows 6 months might be enough time for the Russians to take all of the Donetsk oblast and so end the debate.
And with Luhansk and Donetsk off the table then there only remains the 25% of Kherson and 25% of Zaporizhzhia oblasts not yet in Russian hands to argue over. There must be a price for losing and Putin will demand the 4 oblasts in their entirety.
But Trump and Zelensky had better watch out because Putin must be looking at increasing Russian goals to include Kharkov and Odessa.
On the battlefronts the Russian breakout north east of Pokrovsk (the one the AFU claimed they had beaten back several times) is starting to extend further to the north east to make a left hand pincer arm of a giant cauldron forming to envelope the fortress belt cities of Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Might be too ambitious but getting in behind defences and cutting off supply routes to the whole area would mean a surrender without destroying the cities themselves. Russia might still need to deal with each city in turn but with most of Ukraine's entire army in the region and holes appearing more frequently Russia might start gambling on a Ukraine collapse.
What is clear is that Russia will not be long dealing with the inner belt cities of Pokrovsk, Konstantinovka, Siversk and Lyman.
In the Pokrovsk area Ukrainian reports that withdrawal from Myrnohrad has started but only as far as Pokrovsk so still leaves an estimated 10,000 Ukrainian troops in the Russian cauldron.
(note ISW and BBC maps are known to be biased to Ukraine)
Scott Ritter: Russia "Fed Up" With NATO Escalations - Retaliation is Coming
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