Russian President Vladimir Putin remains uninterested in engaging in good faith negotiations and maintains his goal of destroying the Ukrainian state while the Kremlin has offered no public indication that it will make any significant compromise.
This is what the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) warns.
On February 18, Russian and American officials met in Saudi Arabia for bilateral talks on the war in Ukraine, but Russia continues to show no signs of being ready to make significant concessions regarding Ukraine.
These are the assessments of Western intelligence agencies and American officials, and they are in line with the long-standing assessment of ISW.
Many recent Russian statements indicate that the Kremlin continues not interested in engaging in good faith negotiations and maintains its goal of destroying the Ukrainian state, while the Kremlin has offered no public signs that it would make any substantial compromise.
During the bilateral meeting, Russian officials continued to stress the Kremlin's unwillingness to negotiate over the war in Ukraine and Moscow's determination to achieve its maximalist goals in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, unlike Kremlin officials, continues to demonstrate Ukraine's willingness to compromise in order to achieve lasting peace.
Russian officials in Saudi Arabia have begun what is likely to be an ongoing effort to pressure the United States to accept Russian proposals for economic and investment measures in lieu of any real Russian concessions on Ukraine.
U.S. officials continue to meet with European leaders about support for Ukraine.
A Russian military blogger and former Storm-Z instructor has continued to complain that that the lack of response from the Russian military command on systemic issues is limiting Russian progress near Pokrovsk.
On February 18, the Russian opposition media outlet SOTA reported that the head of the Republic of Mordovia, Artyom Zdunov, had announced that regional authorities were increasing one-time payments for recruits who sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense from 400,000 rubles ($4,369) to 1.1 million rubles ($12,015).
The Russian armed forces continue to send wounded and medically unfit soldiers to the front in an attempt to address the shortage of personnel.