It is in Russia's best interest to slow walk end of war.

 EU AND UKRAINE NOT READY FOR LASTING AGREEMENT

RUSSIA OWNS THE CLOCK

While we see Trump and the U.S. hoping to negotiate an imminent end to the Ukraine conflict, others are still not ready for a lasting settlement. We should expect this conflict to continue far into 2026. 

Trump is till battling the naysayers in the U.S. who still can't comprehend that Ukraine has lost and that as time goes by they will have little leverage for negotiation.

We still have those in the EU, with military forces that cannot in reality come to the aid of Ukraine and economies declining by the day. still talking of war, preparation for war and even pre-emptive strikes on Russia.

In Ukraine, Zelensky is becoming a lame duck that may not have the ability to negotiate an end to this conflict, there still ae many who want to fight on. Ukraine should be in the process of preparing for elections, it would give any possible negotiation more credibility. The problem is that most opposition have been exiled, imprisoned or worse and it would take many months to actually have an election.

Russia has been clear as to what is needed for lasting peace and the opposition is still not ready to accept defeat or any compromise. The EU and Ukraine have hopes of winning the peace by preparing for more war in the future. This reality will prevent any end to this conflict in the near future.

I suspect that Trump understands that an end to the Ukraine conflict would open up may possibilities for peace in other areas. It would allow Russia and China to cooperate in exerting strong influence on Iran to begin the process of lasting peace in that area. Again there are forces who do not want peace in that region. 

The reality is the western European countries are moving into a period of volatile economic, and social uncertainty, which will make them less likely to be able to wage war on Russia. Ukraine is physically exhausted and its supporters are near exhaustion, economically and in there ability to supply weaponry, They all have serious domestic political problems at home. Again, Russia owns the clock and the longer it keeps ticking the less likely of war against Russia. While Russia has suffered greatly from this conflict, it is in their best interest for its opponents to to decline until they are ready for a lasting peace agreement.