Russia to intensify ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine due to failure of peace talks – Bloomberg
Russia is preparing to intensify ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine, including Kyiv, as negotiations on a peace agreement have reached a dead end.
Bloomberg reported this, citing sources, according to Censor.NET.
Kremlin’s plans
According to the publication’s sources, Moscow is considering intensifying ballistic missile strikes, including on central Kyiv and infrastructure facilities in other Ukrainian cities, in response to recent attacks on Wildberries and Ozon warehouses.
The negotiating tracks have effectively collapsed, they said, and the parties to the conflict have returned to square one. Russian dictator Putin will not end the war under the economic pressure of sanctions and Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries and logistics networks, the sources said.
Moscow increasingly views Ukrainian strikes as attacks by NATO countries because Alliance members supply Kyiv with weapons and intelligence. According to the sources, the current phase of hostilities has not yet reached the peak of military escalation.
Failure of diplomatic efforts
US efforts to end the war have so far failed to produce a breakthrough, while negotiations have stalled as President Donald Trump focuses on the conflict with Iran.
According to the publication, the Kremlin has also abandoned its expectation that the purported agreements Putin and Trump reached at their summit in Alaska last August would be implemented. These allegedly envisaged US pressure on Ukraine to cede the Donetsk region. Kyiv has consistently rejected Putin’s demand to surrender Donbas to Russia.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare visit to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterparts, although the purpose of the meeting remains unknown. US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were expected to visit Moscow for the first time in eight months and also make their first visit to Kyiv, but no dates have yet been set for either trip.
In the absence of diplomatic progress, Moscow sees few alternatives to further escalation to achieve its war aims, according to four sources close to the Kremlin. Although Russia hopes Kushner and Witkoff will bring new proposals, expectations of a breakthrough are very low.
According to two sources, the Kremlin believes it has already made concessions during the war and that each one weakened Russia’s position. The Alaska summit is viewed there as another compromise that failed.
Mutual infrastructure strikes and nuclear rhetoric
Russia and Ukraine have intensified their air attacks against each other in recent months. Ukraine is attacking oil refineries, causing fuel shortages in Russia, as well as warehouses belonging to logistics giants Wildberries and Ozon, inflicting billions in losses. Russian missile strikes on Ukraine, in turn, have exposed a chronic shortage of air defence interceptor missiles, leaving Kyiv vulnerable to attacks on energy and heating infrastructure.
- According to sources close to the Kremlin, a growing number of Russian officials are concluding that Putin may ultimately resort to tactical nuclear weapons as a measure of last resort in Ukraine. Hawkish discussions on the issue have intensified in Moscow recently because, for Putin, the only option worse than continuing the war would be losing it.
