I find this summary https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/did-ukraine-miss-an-early-chance-to-negotiate-peace-with-russia/ar-AA1mug8o https://www.msn.com/en-us/n

I find this summary https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/did-ukraine-miss-an-early-chance-to-negotiate-peace-with-russia/ar-AA1mug8o https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/did-ukraine-miss-an-ear... pretty convincing. It basically says that the massacres of Bucha and the disastrous Russian performance in their attack on Kyiv are the reason that Ukraine did not negotiate a seize fire. Plus, while Russia started very tough in the negotiations, after their Kyiv convoy broke down they basically agreed to everything. If you know anything about Russian military history, you know that this means they wanted to use negotiations to consolidate their forces and try again better prepared. We in the western world tend to see such conflicts like a game/puzzle where there is always a winning door that leads to happiness for all participants. Since there are only two choices and the current situation is bad, Ukraine must have made the wrong choice and we would be living happily ever after, if they only had agreed to a deal. Needless to say that Putin loves to play on this mindset by saying all the things all the time. There will always be many groups in the west that will pick out quotes to bolster their favorite narrative and ignore the rest.