What is clear
- Trump had the US up for sale.
Normal country to country negotiations can be very expensive. You want billions and we want billions and maybe a deal gets made. Or complicated Political quid pro quo's get exchanged. With Trump one could just offer him a new Trump Tower in Moscow or Bejing and he would gladly give away Trillions of tax payer value or promise to disband Nato, or abandon allies in Syria to Turkey (when his Turkey assets were threatened).
- Putin did not act as Trump was doing all his dirty work for him.
Both Manafort and Rudy were in Ukraine working hard for Putin Oligarch to get him back in charge of the Ukrainian O&G sector. It was a great grift Putin he never forgave losing. Rudy and Manafort wanted to help re-establish it but make sure Trump and Co were in for their cut of the Billions that flow thru it.
Plan A was to beat up and threaten the Ukrainian gov't and make them know Trump and the US might abandon them if a deal was not done. This was the same play book Trump and jared used to shake down Qatar for $1B to save Jared's family bankrupt real estate empire. And just as Trump threatened to support Saudi invading our ally Qatar, that was the plan for Ukraine.
Step 2, if Ukraine did not just cave and give them a great deal and put Putin's Oligarch back in charge would have been to have the US support the Russian invasion as Trump did the Saudi one of Qatar.
Putin did not act as it made zero sense to, but I am sure now he knows what a bumbling fool Trump proved to be, he wishes he did.