According to three people briefed on conversations with the Russian president, he has lost interest in trying to end his war with Ukraine and is instead going to seize as much Ukrainian territory as possible.
After Russia suffered battlefield setbacks last month, Putin told people involved in trying to end the conflict that there was no chance of a settlement.
A person briefed on the talks said that Putin believes in the nonsense he hears on Russian television.
After Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of committing war crimes against civilians in cities such as Bucha and Mariupol, talks stopped.
According to two people, Putin said that peace efforts were at a dead end and that he was angry after the sinking of the Moskva.
There was hope for a deal. Putin was going back and forth. One of the people said that he needs to find a way to win.
Putin was against signing anything after the Moskva sank.
The commitment to peace talks was thought to be a way of buying time for Moscow.
The people briefed on conversations with the Russian president said he seems to hold a distorted view of the war that is set out by his generals.
They said that he insisted that his forces did not target civilians during the siege of the Azovstal steelworks, the last holdout in the largely destroyed city of Mariupol.
Turkey's president and the European Council president are trying to convince Putin to meet Zelensky in order to break the stalemate.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have placed most other issues on the back burner while trying to reach a deal on guarantees for the security of Kyiv if it abandons its drive to join Nato.
According to the report, Putin said that it was not the right time to meet Zelensky because Ukraine had put up a wall.
Russia believes it can capture more territory, rather than being an indication that the talks need more time to find areas of agreement, according to the negotiators.
A person involved in the peace talks said that Putin was avoiding the meeting with Zelensky.
Zelensky said on Saturday that he wanted the talks to go on, but that if people in Mariupol were killed, or if Russian authorities in the occupied southern region of Kherson were to stage a referendum, then the talks wouldn't continue.
According to people involved in trying to end the war, officials in Kyiv are concerned that Putin may try to seize the whole of the south-eastern part of the country and cut off the sea from the rest of the country.
After defeating Putin's initial plan to seize the country, Ukraine is confident it can push Russian troops back further, but officials are worried that Moscow could resort to nuclear weapons if it suffers further setbacks, two of the people said.
A person briefed on Zelensky's conversation said that Zelensky was aware that fighting Putin was more popular than making concessions in the Ukrainian public.
On Sunday, Erdogan spoke to Zelensky in order to revive the negotiations. According to a statement, the Turkish leader said Ankara was ready to help. On Friday, Erdogan said he hoped to speak to Putin in the coming days.
Putin's spokesman and a representative for Abramovich did not respond to requests for comment.
Laura Pitel is in Ankara.
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