The Kremlin looked to be doubling down on efforts to prolong the Ukraine war, making unsubstantiated claims that Kyiv had sought to attack one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residences, while Moscow’s forces launched a large-scale drone attack in southern Ukraine.
The Trump administration has persistently pushed ceasefire talks and recently said negotiations were progressing, but analysts have warned that Russia’s maximalist objectives make any truce unlikely.
Instead, it appears Moscow is upping the intensity of the conflict — with its casualty figures rising faster than at any time in the war, according to a BBC tabulation of Russian fatalities — even while domestically, “fatigue and resentment are festering beneath the suppression of dissent,” as The Washington Post put it.