Because West has no means to put more pressure on Russia (they cannot even stop buying natural gas), so it has to talk nicely. US cannot demand, for example, that Russia gives them a share of their minerals and generally cannot demand anything.

Actually in hindsight the best time for negotiations was somewhere in end of 2022, but that chance is long gone.

But while West cannot demand, it still can offer (i.e. removing nuclear weapon and US forces from EU etc).

>West has no means to put more pressure on Russia

This is simply false. West can send more arms, more tanks (US sent 31 old Abrams tanks since 2022) more long range missiles. You know how easy it is to defend Ukrainian cities against airborne cruise missiles? Bomb few airbases used by strategic bombers. Bomb few factories used for ballistic missiles production.

If west bite putin's bluff about WWIII then west can transfer technology and give Ukrainians money to make long range ballistic missiles themselves.

And sanctions! West can put a real sanctions. A trade blockade of Baltic and Black sea will destroy their economy pretty soon.

The are so many things west can do.

But US president is a friend of putin and going to bully Ukraine to surrender on Russian terms.

You don't poke the hornets nest. Soon you would see fullscale mobilisation in Russia and you have essentially ww3.

It is a bluff putin is continuously repeating. Because he knows western countries are eager to bite.

Look: at this moment Ukraine is using western arms to occupy part of Russia. What putin did? Same as before occupation.

Strategic bombings of oil refineries - no changes in putin actions.

This is actually the only language Russians understand: strong actions to show power.

I disagree with you on all points provided.

Fullscale mobilisation would lead to fullscale disintegration of Russia. That is why the price for soldiers is so high in Russia.

Russia is not disintegrating under any circumstance, it will always remain, not only because it is a nuclear power.

Say that to czar and his russian empire. Where they are now?

It didn't desintegrate. You see the biggest country on the world map? It's Russia.

The West absolutely has more means at its disposal, by arming Ukraine to the teeth.

The slow drip of arms has been really effective at degrading Russia (just look at the golf cart brigades and North Korean wave attacks), but an increase in long range capability is what's needed to finish the job.

"arming Ukraine to the teeth" does not guarantee the victory but guarantees more casualties and suffering. To win you also need to have 3x more soldiers which is not the case. West cannot even pay a salary comparable to what Russia pays to its volunteer soldiers.

We can both agree that arming Ukraine with more missiles will guarantee more casualties and suffering... for the Russians.

And in response, Russia will do what exactly? Send more golf cart brigades or more North Koreans? It's not like Russia has enormous military resources they've been keeping as a surprise. No, if Russia could do anything differently they would already be doing it to win the 'Special Military Operation'.

Draft more soldiers, for example. Missiles falling on Russian cities will increase motivation to go defend the country and will make a good cause for involuntary conscription.

If the Tsar does resort to involuntary conscription, I hope there are some Ukrainian drones around because we'll get to see the next Great Russian Revolution in 4k!

>West cannot even pay a salary comparable to what Russia pays to its volunteer soldiers

Are you sure west cannot pay monthly salary $2500 like Russia does?

>guarantees more casualties and suffering As well as not sending enough arms.

> Because West has no means to put more pressure on Russia

This is extremely silly. The west has hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian money, the west can supply Ukraine with weapons that are more modern than the nineties era stuff we've been sending, and the west just generally hasn't taken any of the steps it would take if NATO were really at war with Russia, as Russia whinges about. Why is Russia even connected to the internet anymore?

Great, stealing money is soo European.

Without opining on the correctness of referring to this kind of confiscation from one state by another as stealing: it's an obvious mistake to treat taking money out of their bank accounts as a more serious offense than making war on them, literally taking their lives.

This is way more damaging to the institutions of Europe than the war in Ukraine. Countries usually owe each other money, now everyone will think twice before saving assets in Europe.

Oh yes - "Risky to invest in Europe, it'll scupper our future plans to break a peace treaty and violate international law by invading one of their countries".

International law lol. Laws don't apply to countries. Thats kind of also the reason Europe gets away with stealing Russia's assets, for now.

For now the EU has only frozen the bulk of Russian assets. The cases where assets or money has been seized are in cases such as sanctions violations. EU countries are unlikely to seize anything unless they have a solid legal justification.

It was already stolen money. Stolen from the Russian people, by crooks who support a war criminal in his imperialist massacres (the people whose assets are being frozen weren't selected randomly). These oligarchs forfeited their wealth by supporting the aggressor and threatening the countries where they stashed their loot. There is a crystal-clear justification for locking these assets for the trillions Russia will have to pay in reparations.

Listen to yourself. Its ok to steal money if its stolen money? And you don't know that if its stolen. Russia won't have to pay reparations.

You also have to wonder why Vance was less bothered by Putin not continually saying "please" as he was by Zelenskyy not continually saying "thank you".