Yeah it's Putin showing that he's not ready to cut his losses yet and is more than willing to let more Russians and Ukrainians die until he is.

It's basically a psyop way of saying "oh you think we're scared and almost on the brink of collapse, well we're not budging one inch"

If Russia came out tomorrow and said they're ready to cede the (illegally) annexed territories everyone everywhere would know that putin was in trouble. He knows this so these "open for talks" statements he puts out is more of a reminder that Russia plans on continuing the war indefinitely. Second: they're an attempt to make it look like Russia is still strong and is not crumbling under the weight of sanctions.

And you know they will just rebuild their forces and invade again later to take more land. That is how Putin rolls.