WHAT’S HAPPENING
Yesterday, President Trump told the press he had a "great conversation" with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the US president seeks to broker an end to the war.
The call followed a weekend diplomatic push by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who met with Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Despite the diplomatic outreach, Russia and Ukraine have continued to trade deadly strikes, making peace seem a distant reality.
THE FACTS
The Kremlin said Trump told Putin that a swift end to the war could fully restore US-Russia relations.
Witkoff and Kushner held talks in Moscow and Kyiv over the weekend in an effort to revive stalled negotiations, but achieved no breakthrough.
Russia resumed major missile and drone attacks on Kyiv shortly after the American delegation left, killing at least five people and wounding 35.
Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Arctic gas hub, Novy Urengoy, sparking a fire in a region that produces 80 percent of Russia's gas.
The Pentagon warned European allies to brace for a "protracted conflict" in Ukraine.
July saw more Ukrainian civilian casualties than any month since March 2022 — 437 dead, 2,600+ wounded.
Over 16,800 Ukrainian civilians have died since Russia's 2022 invasion, per the UN.
Trump has spoken with Putin 15 times since taking office in early 2025, according to Russian state media calculations.
The full-scale war has lasted over four years and six months, with estimates of at least 2 million military casualties.
OUR TAKE
Putin's demands for Ukrainian territorial concessions, caps on Ukrainian military strength, and permanent NATO exclusion are too steep for achieving a real peace deal. As Trump just said the other day, “the hold-up is two people that hate each other.” Putin and Zelensky have been trying to assassinate each other since the beginning of the war, and this, of course, makes negotiations even tougher.
With the Pentagon telling Europe to brace for years of more war, Trump’s peace deal, which he promised on day one of his presidency, is not just a distant dream, but one that may be fundamentally incompatible with the men he needs to broker it.
