When President Trump’s envoys sat down with Vladimir V. Putin at the Kremlin this month, the Russian leader exuded confidence. Within months, he said, Russian troops would finally capture Ukraine’s entire Donbas region.

And Russia was poised to pummel Ukraine’s electricity grid, setting the stage for a miserable winter. Then one of the envoys, Jared Kushner, tried to push back. With all due respect, you told us exactly that a year ago, Mr. Kushner said to the Russian president.

What are the chances we come back here in another year and you are again saying the same thing? Maybe we don’t lose a year? The exchange, described by a person familiar with the talks and by a U.S. official, captured the quandary of Mr. Trump’s more than 18 months of efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Congress this week passed a landmark sanctions bill taking aim at Russia’s energy sector, a new attempt to make Russia “suffer” for its invasion and to pressure Mr. Putin to make compromises. But even as that bill makes its way to Mr. Trump’s desk, the Trump administration is doubling down on a different approach: offering benefits for Russia that officials hope will get Mr. Putin to consider ending his war.

Among the new inducements: the White House is now considering signing business deals with Russia before it stops fighting in Ukraine, according to two people close to the talks. The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to be candid about the negotiations, said that deals with Russia before the end of the war were possible because they would show that the United States is serious about a reset relationship with Russia. The approach represents a shift from Mr. Trump’s pledge last year that business deals with Russia would not come “until we get the war settled.” It indicates that Mr. Trump’s envoys for ending the war, Steve Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, are groping for new ways to entice Russia to stop fighting, now that it has become clear that Ukraine will not withdraw from the swath of its own territory that Mr. Putin insists he must control before the war ends.

And it contrasts with the approach advocated by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress — not to mention Kyiv’s European allies and Ukraine itself — that only heightened economic and military pressure on Mr. Putin can compel him to compromise.