Since President Donald Trump declined to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary this week, Russia has intensified its bombardment of Ukrainian cities. From Kyiv to Kharkiv, residential areas have been hit, drones dropped on schools, and energy infrastructure targeted. These strikes are meant to prove that any discussion of peace must begin on Putin’s terms.
That is precisely why another Trump-Putin meeting now would be premature and counterproductive. Put simply, Moscow isn’t ready to end the war; it only wants to appear ready. The Kremlin’s hope is that Trump might pressure Ukraine into accepting a deal favorable to Russia, leaving Ukraine with no clear protection from future aggression and freezing Russia’s current territorial gains as permanent. Either outcome would hand Moscow a strategic victory without having to pay the price for its invasion.
Russia’s negotiating formula has never changed: what’s mine is mine; what’s yours, we can discuss. Moscow will not yet agree to a settlement that secures Ukraine’s sovereignty or safety. In turn, the real conversation should center not on what Putin might accept, but how the United States and its allies can make Ukraine strong enough that Russia can neither dictate the terms of peace nor risk another invasion.
That means building credible deterrence for the future through lasting security guarantees supported by European troop deployments, and steady deliveries of advanced weapons that make any new aggression too costly to attempt. At the same time, the current war must become harder for Moscow to sustain. Washington, D.C.’s, decision to tighten oil sanctions and its consideration of sending Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine move in that direction, showing that the costs for Russia can still rise and will if it chooses to keep fighting.
So far, Russia has managed to adapt to pressure and survive sanctions. But the Kremlin should have no doubt that American resolve and Western support for Ukraine are hardening, not weakening. Russia has been betting on fatigue in Europe, and especially in Washington, D.C., where Trump’s tone and moods about Ukraine often shift. The White House’s latest steps have sent a different message to Putin that waiting out his opponents won’t work and that time is no longer on his side. But for that message to matter, the resolve behind it must stay consistent.
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This is why Trump’s refusal to meet Putin was the right move. It did not reward Moscow’s bad-faith behavior, instead showing that Washington, D.C., will not play along with Russia’s diplomatic theater. It also hinted that the West may finally be learning to speak Putin’s language.
That is to say, the language of escalation, dominance, and power. That’s the only one that could ever bring the former KGB officer into credible negotiations.
