The Trump-Putin press conference

My thoughts:

1. I think it’s good for the President of the United States to meet the President of Russia. If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies.
2. From the red carpet treatment to the press conference, it’s clear that Russia is winning this war. The red carpet as mere diplomatic protocol, but why invite Putin solo into the President’s “Beast”? That was v. strange - Trump as the retail developer? Nevertheless, I find it hard to believe that President Trump would invite President Putin if the latter was actually losing the war. 
3. Once again Trump takes the occasion to inveigh against the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” (@ 10:36) and his domestic political rivals. Good God. It’s just so tiresome & embarrassing.
4. We don’t know what the agreement is — but Putin speaks of addressing the “primary roots” of the conflict. This is a coda for Russia’s security concerns apropos Ukraine falling within NATO’s sphere of influence. This means Ukraine cannot (from the point of view of Russian security) fall outside the military control of Russia (i.e. Putin’s boot). Nothing new there. Everyone knows that Ukraine cannot join NATO - but no reason why they cannot join the EU trading bloc (if they choose).
5. If one could work out a phased Russian withdrawal from their current frontlines back to their Donbass & Luhansk strongholds, the Ukrainians would probably take that deal. Ukraine doesn’t have the force to evict Russia from the East, but they have proven v. adept at holding their line against the Russian advance. Thus, working out a ceasefire deal where Russia pulled back from some of the areas they took to stop the fighting. In my previous post (“The Trump-Putin ceasefire meeting”), I refer to a historical defeat of Russia by Finland in the Winter War - but they still had to surrender territory to them. It wasn’t pretty, but Finland won by simply surviving. And, Russia never invaded again. There would probably need to be some security guarantees militating that.
6. Overall, not much of a failure or a success. Let’s see what happens afterwards. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.