Maybe it's just me: Hasn't there been like a lull in the war? I remember, and noted, when Zelensky announced that the Big One, the offensive in the east, had begun. Ditto that Ukraine acknowledged that the Russians had quickly seized control of 42 villages. But since then? Comes now this:

Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin visited Ukraine over the weekend and met with Ukrainian president Zelensky. Said Austin after the trip:

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kind things that it has done in invading Ukraine." 

Now...hmm. Does that mean that we, the United States, want Ukraine to keep up the fight even though so much as already been lost, just so Russia can't do the same thing elsewhere? That's a big ask of Ukraine. What "degree" of weakening would suffice for us?

Austin continued:

Russia had already suffered significant military losses, including “a lot of its troops.” The Pentagon was working to ensure Moscow cannot “very quickly reproduce that capability,” he added, 

Okay, that fleshes it out a little bit. He's talking about Russia replenishing its troops. Its war materiel too?

and the United States and its allies would hold more detailed discussions on what Ukraine needed to prevail at a meeting on Tuesday in Germany.

"Prevail": That means "win." That is different unless I missed a memo. Punish Russia for offing Ukraine I thought was our goal. Define prevail. For Ukraine I hope prevail means more than "make Russia bleed more."

This shows a one-half turn of our kaleidoscope on Ukraine. As does this:

Blinken said Mr. Biden was nominating Bridget Brink, currently the ambassador to Slovakia, as his ambassador to Ukraine, the State Department said in a readout. The department is sending American diplomats back to Ukraine this week.

I would interpret all of this now as the U.S. believes--to a certainty of sending diplomatic personnel back--that Ukraine will survive as a state with its capital still Kyiv. Maybe not the whole Ukraine pre-Feb. 24 but enough that it still survives and functions as a state. Now, I just thought of something...Austin didn't say explicitly that we wanted to see Russia weakened so it cannot pull a Ukraine elsewhere. His exact words were,“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it cannot do the kind things that it has done in invading Ukraine." Any reasonable meaning given that is "elsewhere" but he didn't explicitly say "elsewhere."

Those are strange, ambiguous statements, and actions, to me.