[Goose]

The kicker is that the Sumy/Kharkiv offensives taking shape now were surely being planned during ceasefire talks, indicating that Russia had no intention of abiding by any potential ceasefire agreements.

IMO you are totally correct. One could give Russia the benefit of the doubt and say they planned them but could halt their execution if a ceasefire agreement had been reached. However, Putin has set forth his conditions for a cease-fire that amount to a Ukrainian surrender. He has been firm on this. The US may believe he can be "brought around" to something less but there is no evidence that is the case. Russia and the US apparently aren't even talking about that right now in Saudi Arabia. They are only talking about how to "normalize" relations between the US and Russia.  IMO this "normalization" should not be allowed without a quid pro quo from Russia. So far there is no sign of that.

[Goose]

The kicker is that the Sumy/Kharkiv offensives taking shape now were surely being planned during ceasefire talks, indicating that Russia had no intention of abiding by any potential ceasefire agreements.

IMO you are totally correct. One could give Russia the benefit of the doubt and say they planned them but could halt their execution if a ceasefire agreement had been reached. However, Putin has set forth his conditions for a cease-fire that amount to a Ukrainian surrender. He has been firm on this. The US may believe he can be "brought around" to something less but there is no evidence that is the case. Russia and the US apparently aren't even talking about that right now in Saudi Arabia. They are only talking about how to "normalize" relations between the US and Russia.  IMO this "normalization" should not be allowed without a quid pro quo from Russia. So far there is no sign of that.