Here’s what we know:
Russia and Ukraine have each offered stances on peace talks that appear unacceptable to the other.
Russia rejects a new Ukrainian proposal for peace talks.
Moscow’s strikes on Kherson continue as Ukraine renews pleas to evacuate.
Western officials have dismissed Mr. Putin’s periodic offers to negotiate as empty gestures. Even as Russia’s economy reels under Western sanctions — Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday that the Russian economy had contracted by 2 percent over the past 11 months, the Reuters news agency reported — Mr. Putin has emphasized that there are “no limits” to Russia’s military spending. This month, his defense minister ordered another expansion of the armed services by more than 300,000 members, to a target size of 1.5 million.
All of that suggests, said Marnie Howlett, a lecturer in Russian and Eastern European politics at the University of Oxford, that “there is not necessarily a push for a negotiated peace or even some sort of negotiations, but still a push for whatever endgame is being sought militarily.”