It's all very silly. This, and the whole """"peace summit"""" that Saudi Arabia and others had without inviting Russia, which obviously came to nothing. It's giving me second-hand embarrasment watching these people who were all "Alright, this is it, Ukraine is going to push Russia out of the Donbass AND Crimea AND Belgorod AND Zelensky is going to march through Moscow and Budanov is gonna dab in the Red Square and it'll be so epic and Putler will be so owned and in the Hague and then Captain America will come and he'll deliver an epic quote and it'll be like AVENGERS ASSEMBLE omg Ukraine better not own Russia TOO hard!!" pre-counteroffensive, watching them come down from that unhinged high and very slowly rejoin reality.

And along the way they're in full Bargaining mode, like

"Okay, Russia! As I understand it, Ukraine has killed 500,000 of your troops and destroyed 100,000 tanks so far, so maybe we'll let you keep half of Crimea if you surrender now!"

"Putler, everybody knows your days are numbered, so give up now and we'll re-do the Crimea referendum vote!"

"Alright, maybe we'll also redo the referendums for the Donbass republics too, but no funny business!"

"L-look, just stop and we'll let you keep Crimea and the Donbass but you have to let us do the vote in Kherson and Zaporozhye over, because of electoral irregularities..."

"Please, okay, you can keep what you currently have, but let the rest of Ukraine join NATO..."

"This is my FINAL deal! Stop advancing to the Dniper and we'll let you keep control of Kharkov oblast too!"

NATO and Ukraine, my brothers in christ, you are not in a position to be dictating terms to anybody if you are losing the war. Your options are a conditional surrender now or an unconditional surrender later. Pick the option that saves the lives of more people.