Also, donning my Captain Obvious cape, it’s hard to see how Russia could be satisfied with a negotiated settlement that leaves all its opponents completely intact, i.e. status quo ante, after they’ve sustained such damage and loss of life and remain in the same relative peril as at the beginning.
Trump sounds as though that’s the outcome he’s seeking, and I could see Putin encouraging such expectations with an eye to getting NATO on strategically weaker ground post any deal, in the meantime.
Of course I have no idea what this could be. Maybe pressuring NATO to crack, etc.
At any rate that’s my brain-addled guess as to why Russia is now slow walking “all of a sudden.”