Russia pursues Ukraine deadly attacks despite Trump-Putin’s peace talks

Russia does not retreat from the attack on Ukraine and struck it with missiles and drones on Thursday – just a few weeks after President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, in order to advance a peace agreement.

The attack could be a signal that Putin uses diplomacy to buy more time to advance its objectives and continue to attack Ukraine, while avoiding the secondary sanctions that the Trump administration has threatened to impose, according to experts.

The time to act is now, according to the representative Don Bacon, R-Neb., Chairman of the sub-comity of the Chamber Armed Services Committee on Cyber ​​Questions.

“Putin passes President Trump and the additional time helps Russia continue the bombing campaign against Ukrainian cities,” Bacon said in a declaration of Friday at Fox News Digital. “Plus Trump refuses to impose secondary sanctions against Russia and send high-end weapons to Ukraine, the more he looks like a Simpn for Putin. He is beyond time for Trump to have moral clarity and make himself strong to help democracy that is attacked by Russian thug.”

Russia is launching the biggest attack on Ukraine this month after Trump meetings with Putin, Zelenskyy

The time to act is now, according to the representative Don Bacon, R-Neb., Chairman of the sub-comity of the Chamber Armed Services Committee on Cyber ​​Questions. (Images Andrew Harnik / Getty)

Bacon, an Air Force retirement brigadier who does not seek to re -election in 2026, said that discussions with Putin proved to be futile and indicated that Putin was not serious about an agreement.

“We have not seen any results of the talks with regard to Putin willing to make compromises,” said Bacon. “Although I think the search for negotiations was worth it, it showed that Putin did not want peace.”

The White House argued that Trump has made more progress in two weeks to resolve the conflict than his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, for more than three years, and underlined Trump meetings with Putin and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a few days.

“President Trump’s national security team continues to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials to a bilateral meeting to stop the murder and end the war,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in a Friday declaration in Fox News Digital.

Trump announced on July 14 that he would disconnect “serious prices” against Russia if Moscow did not accept a peace agreement within 50 days. He then radically reduced the deadline to only 10 to 12 days – which ended on August 8. But rather than laying additional sanctions against Russia, Trump met Putin a week later in Alaska and praised the meeting of great success.

However, the progress resulting from the meeting seems limited. Russia has not accepted a ceasefire, and although Trump initially declared that a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy was in preparation, Russia made a break for such a meeting.

Russian drone Kill 7 strikes in Kharkiv at the Zelenskyy White House meeting with Trump

President Donald Trump, on the right, welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the left, when he arrives at Elmendorf-Richards Base on August 15, 2025. (Images Andrew Harnik / Getty)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with NBC News on August 22 that no meeting had been planned and that Putin would only accept if certain conditions were approved in advance. This is not the case, he said.

“Putin is ready to meet Zelenskyy when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this program is not ready at all,” said Lavrov.

Meanwhile, Russia launched a massive attack on Thursday using nearly 600 drones and lure against kyiv, killing more than 20 people. In response, the United Nations Security Council has planned an emergency meeting for Friday, according to the request of Ukraine and several other European allies.

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Michael McFaul, a former American ambassador to Russia during the administration of former President Barack Obama, said in an article on X that Putin had only degenerate the attacks on Ukraine after the Alaska meeting, and said Putin “was making Trump openly laugh.

“I hope Mr. Trump and his team understand how Putin spits on their faces,” said McFaul in an article on Thursday on X.

In addition, Putin is on the fact that he can bypass the economic consequences and will seriously negotiate only an agreement unless he owes, according to Steven Pifer, who previously was American ambassador to Ukraine during the administration of former President Bill Clinton.

“I think Putin is, in fact, by launching the president,” Pifer in Fox News Digital told. “Putin always believes that he can achieve his objectives, vis-à-vis Ukraine, on the battlefield. And we are not going to see a serious attempted negotiation of the Russians until Putin is convinced that he cannot win on the battlefield, and that continuing to try will only mean costs more and more-above all, many more Russian soldiers.”

Trump and Putin’s relationship becomes sour while the president resolves with Ukraine

President Donald Trump, on the right, and Russian president Vladimir Putin, on the left, hold a meeting with Elmendorf-Richardson base on August 15, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (Images Andrew Harnik / Getty)

“I just don’t see any really serious measures that the administration has taken to inflict a punishment on Putin,” said Pifer. “I think Putin understood this, and until Putin is disillusioned with this notion, he will continue the missing deadlines.”

Historically, Russia’s requests for a peace agreement have included the ban of Ukraine to join NATO, as well as concessions on some of the borders which were previously Ukraine.

Peter Rough, a senior member and director of the center on Europe and Eurasia to the Hudson Institute’s reflection group, said that Putin knows that the United States is impatient to end the war, Putin peace requirements are an attempt to replenish heat on Ukraine.

After Trump’s meeting with Putin and before his meeting of days later with Zelenskyy, the American president put the burden on Ukraine to end the war – and said that Ukraine could end the war immediately if she agreed to give in to Russia, and to abandon his candidacy for membership in NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump participate in a meeting at the Oval Blanche office in Washington on August 18, 2025. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

“Putin managed to circumvent American sanctions in Alaska and just go wild in Ukraine,” Rouh told Fox News Digital on Monday. “But he also recognizes that the United States wants this war to end, it therefore put forward a proposal intended to call on Washington in the hope that the United States will put pressure on Ukraine to accept its terms. If it can divide the transatlantic alliance along the way.

John Hardie, deputy director of the Russian program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Putin did not want to accept an agreement unless his conditions were included. In the meantime, Putin uses diplomacy to avoid economic consequences, said Hardie.

“I think Putin wants an agreement – but only if it is under his terms,” ​​Hardie told Fox News Digital on Monday. “Until it happens, he is determined to continue the war, and Russia seeks to use diplomacy to prevent more difficult American economic pressure and redirect Trump’s anger from Moscow to kyiv.”