This is fair, I interpreted the news article incorrectly and I think you are correct as to the intent of Putins messaging.

Is this really trustworthy, I mean, do we really believe that the Russian SMO will end because Russia wills it? Neither Russia nor Ukraine show any peace propensity so even if Russia was honest (which I doubt; and I’m not judging, if I was Putin I probably would have done the same) who’s to say that the “western bloc” doesn’t see it as more reasonable and profitable to continue this war of attrition conflict. Or in Marxism:

• Thesis: Russia’s ruling bloc seeks to terminate the war only on terms that secure its regional-strategic objectives and domestic legitimacy.
• Antithesis: Ukraine, backed by Western imperial blocs and their military-industrial interests, resists settlement on Russian terms because defeat would mean subordination, while continuation also serves Western strategic and capitalist interests.
• Synthesis: The war will not end through declared peace intent, but through a transformed balance of class, state, military, and imperial contradictions. Most likely being exhaustion, elite recalculation, or a frozen compromise that preserves unresolved antagonisms.

So: who is suffering more, who is loosing more and who has the higher depletion rate in this war of attrition?