Considering how the minds of the pro-Ukraine sycophants seem to work, I wouldn't doubt they thought Russia was completely ignorant.

Many seem to exist in this mindset of Russia being so incompetently retarded and blind that every single negative thing you could possibly ever ascribe to a person/group/army fits at once, and they only are winning because the US hasn't sent enough money yet.

Also acknowledging your side is weak while they are obviously fucking weak is a pretty good negotiation tactic. You are literally playing to their ego as the superior and instead posturing to save them the trouble of routing/cleaning you up. And considering they constantly call Putin egotistical and many other forms of it, that's an extremely effective tactic on such a person as that.

But we know they don't actually care about deals or ending the war. They just want to "resist" Putin because they were told to.