The Kremlin’s leader is standing back as Ukraine and Europe scramble to negotiate changes to a U.S. proposal to end the war.

After a US framework for peace in Ukraine abruptly emerged last week, Europeans scrambled to draft a counterproposal that is easier on Kyiv. From territorial and financial issues to the possibility of NATO membership and a sweeping amnesty,

From the front-line city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia in the south, there is little doubt that Russia is making advances. But, battlefield monitors suggest the picture is not quite so bleak for Ukraine as Trump and Putin suggest.