During winter, the Bolshevik government approached the Central Powers for a peace deal, but the negotiations stalled when the Bolsheviks were confronted with the enemy's demands. Sadoul was enthusiastic about peace through nonresistance, but later switched to supporting partisan warfare against the Germans. Trotsky used his services to send out parallel offers to the Entente, in exchange for international recognition. In February 1918, as the German Army began its punitive advance on Petrograd, Sadoul offered his expertise as a military saboteur to the Chairman of the Commissars, Vladimir Lenin. As noted by Lenin, Sadoul also brought with him French monarchist officers, including Guy Louis Jean de Lubersac, who agreed to fight under a communist banner "to secure the defeat of Germany". Despite Sadoul's interventions, Lenin refused to work with Charles Dumas, personal envoy of the French Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon.