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Ukraine and the EU were pushing for an unconditional ceasefire before they agree to attend any talks about peace. What this means is both sides agree to freeze the front lines, Russia stops the advance, Ukraine is flooded with equipment and gets to rotate the troops, Russia observes the process knowing that the ceasefire is unconditional so doing anything about this would violate the agreement.
Then, Ukraine will be ready to attend the peace talks on the principle of "peace through strength."
If you think I'm making things sound silly — no, that's their official position word for word. Putin calls out this demand and says this is a non-starter. The EU and Ukraine accuse Putin of refusing to stop the war. Putin talks to Trump. The EU leaders and Zelensky panic and try to put a wedge at every opportunity. First Zelensky's visit was essentially him attempting to prebunk the Russian lies about wanting peace, you could notice him trying to push the narrative that Trump shouldn't meet Putin and should instead give more aid as this is the only way forward.