With his invasion of Ukraine going badly, Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin is pretending to offer peace in exchange for half the country. Now, that is: He’d clearly come for the rest later.

If he can’t get that surrender, he’ll just keep on slaughtering as many Ukrainians as he can, despite his fevered claim that they’re all actually Russians. The only place he’ll let them flee is to areas he controls.

At peace negotiations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the war will continue until Ukraine recognizes “that Crimea is Russian territory and that they need to recognize that Donetsk and Luhansk are independent states.” Russia also demands that Ukraine write into its Constitution a permanent ban on joining NATO, the European Union or anything else that would help protect its independence of Moscow.

Peskov also offered the macabre vow that once Ukraine stops its “military action . . . no one will shoot.” We’re only killing you because you insist on defending yourselves.

Meanwhile, Putin’s Defense Ministry claims it will offer safe evacuation routes from Ukraine — that led only to Russia or its puppet Belarus. This, after the Russians shelled other evacuation routes it had said would be safe. 

In short, Putin offers Ukraine nothing but conquest and forced assimilation. 

No wonder more than 1.7 million Ukrainians have fled their country — including the 11-year-old boy who made it over the Slovakian border alone, traveling 600 miles after his widowed mother sent him away to escape Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia. The flight will reach 5 million if the war drags on, and likely millions more if Putin actually conquers the country.

If the West continues to meet Putin’s aggression with insufficient resolve, countless tragedies are ahead.