With his proposals, Trump had offered Putin a relatively easy off-ramp from his apparent suicidal mission.
But the Russian leader doesn't want a deal.
A Russian-American businessman told me recently Putin cannot end the war because his whole economy is now based on war.
Russia has mobilized an army of 1.5 million men, has a military budget equal to all European countries combined, and has a massive armament program underway making everything from drones to tanks to artillery shells — you name it.
"It is absolutely imperative for Russia to continue to rely on the military industry, because it [has] become the driver of economic growth," Alexander Kolyandr, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, recently said.
"For a while, it will be next to impossible for Russia to reduce military spending."