On Thursday, Moscow rebuffed comments by US President Donald Trump that Kyiv’s recent strike campaign inside Russia could help bring the war to a close.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a “misconception” in Moscow’s eyes.
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What did Trump say?
On Wednesday, Trump said he considered Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries the escalation needed before ending the war after an hour-long meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It’s an escalation that can help lead to an end,” he said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey, echoing similar remarks from the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, who said Kyiv anticipates a potential end to the “active phase” of the war this year.
Trump, who claimed he could resolve the war in “24 hours” before returning to office in January 2025, also acknowledged that ending Russia’s war against Ukraine had proven more difficult than he expected.
“We’ve settled a lot of wars. And this one is the one that I thought maybe would be the easiest,” he added.
The comments came as Kyiv struck all major Russian refineries in recent months – reportedly aided by US intelligence – that disabled at least 43 percent of Russia’s refining capacity and led to a sprawling fuel crisis in Russia.
“Certain misconceptions”
Peskov rebuffed the remarks by calling them “misconceptions” from the White House, saying Russia would respond to the intensified strikes by seizing more Ukrainian land.
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“We see certain misconceptions within the White House administration – that by escalating military pressure it can help move to a peace settlement. That is a mistaken view,” Peskov told reporters, according to AFP.
He said Moscow would respond by “creating a larger security zone” – a shorthand for more occupied territories – echoing similar remarks from Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and current Security Council deputy chairman, known for hawkish remarks.
Despite the lackluster battlefield performance, with advances slowing to a crawl alongside logistics challenges posed by Ukraine’s “middle strike” campaign, the Kremlin has refused to back down from its maximalist positions of capturing the entirety of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region despite claims of openness towards peace talks.
Senior Kremlin officials have also accused the Trump administration of walking back from agreements made in Alaska in 2025 between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which reportedly included US approval to pressure Ukraine into ceding the Donbas region.
Kyiv maintained that territorial concessions are off the table and proposed a frontline freeze as a starting point for peace talks, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that nothing was agreed in Alaska.
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