1) Putin is almost damned if he moves forward OR backward. He's already "lost" in the sense that Sweden and Finland have joined NATO.

2) As such, I'd think Putin would have the most to gain by some kind of truce where he gets to keep Crimea and Donbas (let's say) while all sides stand down. At least Putin temporarily saves face.

3) You can see why Ukraine doesn't want to negotiate...they stand to get Putin deposed and become NATO's darling for many years to come (with accompanying $$$).

4) If Putin wants to escalate with nuclear missiles, he'd better hope Russian 80's electronics can somehow match our modern electronics (almost a "game over" for Russia/China when after Taiwan moves their state of the art chip factories to Arizona?))