Putin says Russia ready to hold talks on the future of Ukraine

The Russians appear willing to make concessions. This is a skillful ploy to put us off our guard.

I hope this is just preparation for a victory lap, maybe even just mocking them now because a lot of (pro-Russia) analysts already came to a conclusion the current borders are far from sufficient. Likewise it is almost impossible to conceive Ukraine will cede unoccupied territory so again, I'm not sure what he is trying to do here other than to take a piss.

The pre-war goals, the most important being NATO neutrality? You'd be a damn fool to believe this will be enforceable without Russian troops sitting within 15km of Kiev for the rest of eternity or something like that.

I hope this is just preparation for a victory lap
Nothing about this shit-show deserves a victory lap. It was the bloodiest and most pointless mass immolation of life and livelihood since Iraq. At the absolute best, Russians get to claim a charnel house littered with depleted uranium. More likely, they'll be doing anti-insurgency across the country for decades, while the rest of Europe grows increasingly fascist and racist towards Slavs.
I'm not sure what he is trying to do here other than to take a piss
All wars are just a prelude to diplomacy. I think Putin is putting out interest now so he looks better on the international stage, before Biden loses the White House and Republicans come to the settlement table ready to kick this under the rug so they can pivot back to China.
The pre-war goals, the most important being NATO neutrality?
NATO gets to come out of this with more money, more members, and a renewed mandate to battle its age-old nemesis. I think NATO general staff might be the ONLY folks coming out of this for the best. Maybe with the exception of the Chinese, who have finally broken through the old Sino-Soviet split and as senior partners to boot.
You'd be a damn fool to believe this will be enforceable without Russian troops sitting within 15km of Kiev for the rest of eternity or something like that.
I don't know how many Ukrainians are left standing to do the next Pickett's Charge into Russian artillery fire. And given how easily Russian artillery has demolished critical infrastructure in and around Kiev, I hardly think they need to be west of Brovary to pose a threat.
The enforcement comes from Russian artillery placements. Donetsk will be at least as secure as Pyongyang.
- It was the bloodiest and most pointless mass immolation of life and livelihood since Iraq
  That's crazy, how was this more pointless than Libya, Donbas, Afghanistan, Armenia, or Palestine? More bloody sure, but Russia's reasons for entering are justifiable for national security
  Don't tell me that Russia thought getting sanctioned by the rest of the entire world and entering a proxy war in a massive country was somehow expected to be a net economic gain like everything the West has done since Iraq
- More likely, they'll be doing anti-insurgency across the country for decades, while the rest of Europe grows increasingly fascist and racist towards Slavs.
  Not sure what your point here is, they were dealing with the Ukrainian nazis shelling donbass for almost a decade already, at least now there is a path towards some sort of normalcy while before there wasn't? Like I'm not sure your point here this is very much a big victory for the Russian ethnic in eastern Ukraine.
  You also don't seem to realize Russian popular sentiment is already very invested into the outcome of this war. It is why Putin can't be too soft, its why he was criticized when the Azov prisoners were exchanged even by regular right wing/nationalists. War support in Russia is not just a leftist cause and Russia will take pride in their "victory".
  Of course that doesn't discount the human cost at all, but as I said the human cost was already there counted in the amount of missiles and shells hitting Donest city every day before the war.
  The rest of EU? Everything is contingent on US support, nobody else has an army nor an economy to wage war and while they may be racist towards Slavs this is nothing but a mere continuation of the cold war.
  But even more so Europe was always as much fighting among themselves as with outsiders, the EU neoliberal project is barely a generation old and the post-WW2 "normalcy" came at the cost of Germans bombing French and English/vice-versa to hell. Of course the capitalists on both sides were spared but my point is such "unity" is fickle at best historicaly it doesn't take much for European countries to go to war against each other. Also remember how Spain/Greece/Italy got fucked in 2008 by German backed EU economic policies?
  The same thing will keep happening. The racism against non-whites is barely a stop gap measure, EU fascism will turn inwards first before worrying about geopolitical issues. Anyway its not like said Italian or French fascist got any military power to do anything without US help anyway. Best they can do is continue to persecute non-whites/the poor at home.
Worth a read
I haven’t finished thinking about it, but the idea of land redistribution to veterans as a way to stabilize the initial occupation of the western ukraine is interesting if nothing else.

I wouldn't have predicted it but Russia somehow did not take the L in this war, not that the eort of Russian collapse the west hoped for was ever feasible. I will say Hamas getting Ukraine thrown off the US military aid number one priority position was a sweet bonus for Russia. And it also shows the logistical issues in maintaining an empire. You can't cover the globe despite how insane you might be. Power to the Houthis

Hasn't this been Russia's position the entire time? I've only ever seen them actively trying to have peace negotiations over the past decade, much to the chagrin and mockery of Ukraine and the West who declare it either SUBTERFUGE or WEAKNESS.

This headline in a western news outlet is, to me, more of an indicator to me that the West is now bored with this proxy war, wants to end it and is looking to save face.

Russia is screwed either way.

With China reconciling with the US after realizing that Russia’s tiny market simply could not absorb the loss of export to the US, it is clear that Russia will get the short end of the stick moving forward as China refuses to decouple from the US. Together with the demise of BRICS, with India pulling away and Argentina going its own way, Putin knows that Russia has to make concessions now or they will get even shittier deal if they wait longer.

It is fair to say that Russia and China have failed to bring down the empire. The world simply isn’t ready for it yet.

What? Where the fuck did you get the idea that China wants to decouple from the US? Or from anyone for that matter?
China hasn't been involved in any of this shit. Bring down the empire? China doesn't have to bring down the empire, it's in decline and it's never going to stop that decline. China just simply has to exist and it will rise to the top without an unprecedented intervention that the west is simply incapable of performing. America is already on the path the British empire was and will not reverse that.
I don't know where you've gotten these ideas from but they're just flat out wrong.
- I've only been lurking and reading, not really speaking up about it but that's kinda the trend I notice with their posts. A lot of them just come off as "USA stronk and Biden 5000 IQ 5-D Chess strategic mastermind, USA set to eviscerate and humiliate China and set in ~~thousand~~ infinite year reich. China weak, ineffective and pathetic and hopeless, USA only makes it look like China has a chance out of pity." That's not actually what they're saying of course, but I'm just exaggerating for the reason stated below:
  It's actually seriously getting on my nerves.
What loss of export to the US?
(wrote that before reading the rest of the comment; it has too many mistakes to easily list; wrong from beginning to end really)

What is there to talk about? When Russia GTFO of Ukraine the war is over.

You must be new here
Like a stubborn child trying to bash their head through a wall.
Do it again! You're almost through!
And what should be done with the majority Russian areas who legally can't speak their language and who have artillery shells blasted into their cities by the Azov Batallion?
Why are liberals so excited to have a genocide in the Donbas?
When are you going to grow up and join the real world? Repeating this shit over and over again doesn't make it any less realistic, bordering on complete and total fantasy.
What you are actually saying when you say this is that you are happy to see tens of thousands of people die for dumbass lines on a map, because you care about dumbass lines on a map and the states more than human beings. Your priorities lie in nationalism, not people's lives. I'd go so far as to call it ultra-nationalism given the level of delusion you people are now stooping to in order to throw yet more bodies into the grinder.
This all could have ended before Boris put a stop to negotiations. And it would have ended with exactly the same outcome that we're going to get now, except with hundreds of thousands fewer deaths that you lot were happy to see.
- And it would have ended with exactly the same outcome that we're going to get now
  Not really. Ukraine would have been able to retain the Donbas and they wouldn’t be living in a wrecked nation with a trillion dollars in destroyed infrastructure. Russia was basically only asking they stop attacking the Donbas, recognize their rights, and Russia would retain Crimea.
You either have brain of a small child, or you have the reasoning skills of a chimp.
Then go volunteer. They need bodies.
- Interesting how brave reddit warriors ready to join the international brigades suddenly went silent after they got rekt by missiles lmao.
Brother that’s not going to happen. Russia is taking a big fat 21st century shit on Ukraine right now.

I wouldn't have predicted it but Russia somehow did not take the L in this war. I kinda do but it's too long to explain, except that they were lucky Hamas got Ukraine thrown off the priority list.