So Putin now wants peace in Ukraine!

According to Reuters, Vladimir Putin wants a peace deal with Kyiv and for the settlement to allow Russia to keep all the territory it has seized in the war. Well, that's dead in the water, surely. Zelensky has said so many times that he will never negotiate away any part of Ukraine and he has always included Crimea when he has said that. Crimea was annexed without a fight by the Russian in 2014. So even tbhough the war has been going on for more than two years, Zelensky is sticking to his persistent mantra that Russian troops should go back across the border into their own country and leave the Ukranians alone. No room for compromise there. So, why would Putin be thinking of some sort of deal when he knows he will be laughed out of court? The answer is obvious. Putin is a wiley individual. He is testing the waters. He will have taken into account the fact that in November it is possible, if not very likely, that Donald Trump will become president again and Trump has sad he intended to end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office. So, in anticipation of another Trump administration, Putin has cunningly let it be known that he is ready for a deal and has named his price. Four unidentified Russian officials spoke to Reuters, clearly on the say-so of Putin. Trump will seize on it if he wins the election because he must be worrying about how the hell he is going to end the war on Day One of his presidency. Now he has the answer. Putin, through his emissaries to Reuters, has effectively told Trump: "This is the deal I am prepared to consider. Take it or leave it." The timing of the leak to Reuters couldn't be more helpful to Trump, and let's see if he reacts to it. If such a deal went ahead and Kyiv was forced to accept it, Trump would be able to claim that he and only he brought the war to an end. Putin probably wouldn't mind.