I agree that we were never very serious about negotiations for a war we aren't even involving ourselves in. We told Putin to not invade, not sure what else you want from us.
Which is why other nations are filling the breach left behind by the United States when its been the United States and Western Europe meddling in the political affairs of Ukraine for a decade, and again, even overthrowing a democratically elected president to install an anti-Russian puppet.
As I said, if this gets negotiated out, the usual suspects will be tasked to write puff pieces on the integral role the U.S. played in the negotiations, we are less than a year from the mid-terms after all.
Draw Putin into a war of occupation, pump Ukraine full of weapons to fuel the insurgency, drag it out for days-weeks-months, ramp up the domestic/military unrest in Russia. If the US/NATO was going to take such a hard-line stance relative to Ukrainian inclusion in NATO, the weapons should have been there before Russia moved a single tank.
