In a grave escalation, Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine this Wednesday, targeting crucial power plants, a kindergarten, and other civilian areas, resulting in six fatalities. This violent surge occurred mere hours after President Trump announced the postponement of a scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, citing a desire to avoid a “wasted” peace effort.
President Trump had initially indicated a meeting with Mr. Putin in Hungary was imminent to advance peace talks. However, following recent discussions between American and Russian officials, the White House confirmed on Tuesday that no such summit was planned “in the immediate future.”
The Trump administration’s decision to delay came after Russian officials firmly reiterated their uncompromising demands for an end to the invasion of Ukraine, once again rejecting a proposed cease-fire that would freeze the existing front lines.
Tragically, video footage released by officials on social media on Wednesday depicted emergency responders evacuating young children from a burning kindergarten in Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine. Authorities reported that this attack on the school claimed one life and left several others wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that these overnight assaults clearly demonstrated Russia’s lack of motivation to cease prolonging the war.
The widespread Russian attacks led to nationwide power rationing for industrial users and emergency blackouts for civilians in multiple regions, including the capital, Kyiv. These strikes unfortunately align with a recurring pattern where Russia intensifies attacks on Ukraine following pivotal diplomatic moments with the Trump administration.
President Zelensky reiterated on Tuesday that Ukraine urgently requires more long-range weaponry to effectively pressure Moscow into halting its invasion. Despite meeting with President Trump at the White House last Friday, the Ukrainian leader concluded those challenging discussions without securing the American long-range missiles he had sought.
While publicly endorsing President Trump’s peace initiatives, Ukrainian officials have consistently maintained that Moscow will only cease its aggression if Kyiv possesses sufficient retaliatory capabilities.
Ukrainian analysts expressed cautious optimism that President Trump might be starting to see through Mr. Putin’s strategy of drawing out negotiations through high-profile meetings that yield minimal substantive progress. Notably, Russian officials had initially welcomed the proposal for a Budapest summit after Mr. Trump’s phone call with Mr. Putin on Thursday, just a day before his meeting with Mr. Zelensky.
Mykhailo Samus, director of the independent New Geopolitics Research Network in Kyiv, remarked, “Trump realized that this meeting would be a catastrophe, and he would gain nothing but shame. But the question is, what is next? Will Putin be able to get him to such a meeting again?” Samus added, “It is important for President Trump to understand that a Nobel Peace Prize is possible only by pressuring Putin, not by shouting at Zelensky.”
President Trump has historically shown considerable deference to Mr. Putin, failing to follow through on his threats to impose sanctions on Russia for continuing the war. Furthermore, he has not yet supplied American Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv, seemingly deterred by warnings from the Kremlin.
However, apparently buoyed by his recent success in mediating a cease-fire in Gaza, and ever-driven by his public ambition to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Trump has renewed efforts to restart Ukraine’s peace process, which had stalled after his earlier meeting with Mr. Putin in Alaska this summer.
Despite not securing new weapons from his talks with President Trump last week, President Zelensky did ensure continued U.S. support for Kyiv’s stance on territorial integrity. Moscow has indicated its firm intention to secure the surrender of the remaining Ukrainian-controlled areas of the eastern Donetsk region, a demand Kyiv unequivocally rejects.
President Zelensky is set to meet with European leaders in Denmark on Thursday to garner further support from European nations. These countries have become the primary financial and military backers of Kyiv’s war effort since the cessation of direct American aid under President Trump. European leaders, in solidarity with Ukraine, continue to advocate for an immediate cease-fire along the current battle lines.
According to analyst Mr. Samus, Russia’s primary objective in peace talks since spring has been consistent: to delay any cease-fire and to prevent the United States from supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons.
While Mr. Putin has largely achieved these aims thus far, the recent postponement of the Budapest meeting suggests that the Russian president’s reliance on this repetitive tactic may be diminishing, Mr. Samus noted.
President Zelensky also sharply criticized Russia’s diplomatic maneuvering. “Russia continues to do everything it can to weasel out of diplomacy,” he declared on Tuesday. “As soon as the issue of long-range capabilities for us, for Ukraine, became less immediate, Russia’s interest in diplomacy faded almost automatically.”