Mr Putin has said repeatedly that he’s open to talks about a settlement to Russia’s nearly three-year-long war, even as he also insists he won’t give up territories that his army seized in the east and south of Ukraine since he ordered the full-scale invasion.

That will take some doing. Putin remains uninterested in peace talks as long as Russian troops continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s east, albeit at a slow pace, and while Ukrainian forces hold seized territory in the Kursk region inside Russia, according to John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and other former officials.