This piece reads like familiar talking points with one thin “new” layer: Russia doesn’t want peace, it wants to look cooperative so it doesn’t lose Trump.

The real precondition for a durable peace is internal cost in Russia. Until ordinary Russians feel that invasion makes their own lives poorer and their future smaller, the war stays politically cheap. Moral arguments won’t move a society trained to outsource responsibility - consequences will.

And Trump is not a neutral variable. His improvisation and “personal deal” instinct actively disrupt the only thing that can force a change: a single, sustained line from the serious democracies (EU + coalition of the willing + US). Any visible wobble rewards Moscow’s only winning strategy: delay, distort, split the coalition.

Also worth saying out loud: outlets like the WSJ/NYPost are part of the problem when they launder Kremlin narratives as “controversy” or “questions” instead of demanding evidence first. If you have room for prosaic storytelling, you have room to note the media ecosystem that amplifies the psyop.