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Vladimir Putin is dismissing calls to negotiate a peace settlement with Ukraine and is instead likely to escalate the conflict, according to three sources close to the Kremlin, contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump's recent assertion that a resolution was within reach.
Two of the sources, speaking anonymously to Reuters, said escalation in the coming months was a strong possibility.
One of them, who meets regularly with the Russian president, described a "high probability" of further military action. Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and ports have not softened Putin's position, the sources said, but hardened it.
The disclosures put the Kremlin sharply at odds with Trump, who said Monday that Putin wanted the war to end and that peace was "closer than people realize."
Trump held separate calls last week with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and met Zelenskyy at the NATO summit Wednesday, where the Ukrainian leader said they discussed "ideas to bring peace closer."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged Russia's willingness for a "peaceful resolution" in principle, but added that Moscow had "enough capability to act independently and continue the special military operation."
According to one source familiar with the Russian president's thinking, Putin has "dug in his heels" on capturing the remainder of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, where Russian advances have slowed considerably this year.
That same source said Putin recently rebuked a group of advisers who proposed a compromise based on a ceasefire along the current front lines, a scenario he has publicly dismissed.
The second source said Putin believes Russia will soon take full control of the Donbas.
In televised remarks to Russian generals last week, Putin said Ukraine's strikes on energy infrastructure meant Russia would seek to capture additional Ukrainian territory along the border, beyond Donbas, as a "security zone."
On July 3, he claimed Russian forces had seized the eastern city of Kostiantynivka, one of several towns in what Ukraine describes as its "fortress belt," a critical defensive line in the Donetsk region. Kyiv denied the claim.
During a subsequent call with Trump on July 4, Putin sought to persuade the American president that Russia would take the remaining fifth of the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control.
The source who meets Putin regularly said the Russian president "needs some kind of victory" and views control of the region as a matter of principle.
Putin had also publicly rebuffed a June call by Zelenskyy for a meeting and a ceasefire. A senior Ukrainian official, responding to a request for comment, said Kyiv's intelligence reporting in recent months indicated Putin was preparing for further military steps, including new operations in Ukraine or a possible attack on another European country.
The war, now well into its fifth year, has exacted an enormous toll. Approximately two million soldiers have been killed, wounded or gone missing since the 2022 invasion, some 1.4 million of them Russian, according to a recent estimate by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Neither side publicly discloses military casualty figures.
Ukraine's drone campaign has offset Russia's numerical superiority in troops along the roughly 1,200-kilometer front line, slowing Moscow's advances.
Repeated Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, ports and fuel storage facilities have caused severe shortages inside Russia, bringing the war's consequences home to millions of civilians. Putin's approval rating, while still high, recently fell to its lowest point since the war began, according to a poll.
Russia has responded with major strikes of its own. In the past week alone, Russian forces launched two large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including on the capital Kyiv, killing dozens of civilians. Moscow said the strikes targeted military infrastructure.
Ukraine's recent battlefield gains have made Putin angrier and more determined to respond forcefully, according to the source who meets with him regularly. Some Western military analysts warn that fully securing Donbas could require a mandatory draft of fighting-age men, a move Putin has resisted throughout the conflict.
Russia has also caused widespread damage to Ukrainian ports, commercial enterprises and power facilities, affecting both production and exports across the country.
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