This whole thing of Russia seemingly wanting to further appropriate territories that aren’t theirs stinks as a bargaining tactic.
Asking for something outrageous and then settling for something less so with the optics being that they are compromising on their demands and settling on a more ”reasonable” outcome but in truth still very good outcome for themselves.
A shame that the discussion went from, Russia needs to stop their invasion of Ukraine and recognize Ukraine sovereignty to maybe Russia can get all that they conquered plus Ukraine needs to give them even more land, plus the security guaranties are a mirage plus NATO membership would be forever off the table… what a **** deal for Ukraine.
A puppet American president and a passive European leadership has lead to this point. So I guess we are just gonna have to brace ourselves to the next landgrab. Europe and the world never learn.