(RELATED: The European Political Collapse That Never Ended)Putin is also being dragged by Trump into negotiating from an increasingly weak position. The outcomes of any peace negotiations are usually decided by conditions on the battlefield, and as long anticipated by The American Spectator, it’s that which is now driving Putin’s desire to talk. If Ukraine’s fortified industrial triangle in Donetsk, encompassing the cities of Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, and Konstantinovka, continues holding on, Putin’s hand diminishes. In that one day of fighting in Pokrovsk, Russia lost 1,020 soldiers, 115 tanks and armored vehicles, 32 artillery systems, and 850 drones. The Russian leader may realize that time is no longer necessarily on his side.