They dont want kiev. That is too big and too hard to defend. They want the east and that is what they will ask during negotiations. Only in netflix war lasts four days. America needed 18 days to do some stuff in iraq
The east was just a part they could get control over in 2014. But their goal was always the whole country.
By all conventional measures it's impossible for them to hold it. Why would we assume thats what theyre trying to do? It makes no sense.
I think he knows Ukraine is lost. He wants it broken so it becomes a strategic liability for the west rather than a military asset.