Putin likely to escalate Ukraine war

President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv, three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters, with Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russia's oil refineries and ports strengthening his resolve to keep fighting for now.

Two of ​the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Putin was instead likely to escalate the conflict, now well into its fifth year. One of them, who meets regularly with the president, described a “high ‌probability" of escalation in the coming months.

The comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said that Putin wanted the war to end and that a resolution was “closer than people realize.” Trump held separate phone calls with Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.

He met Zelenskiy at the NATO summit on Wednesday where the Ukrainian president said they discussed “ideas to bring peace closer.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the people familiar with Putin’s thinking said he had “dug in his heels” to achieve the key objective of capturing the remainder of ​Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where Russian advances have slowed this year.

The same source said Putin recently rebuked a group of advisers suggesting a compromise based on a ceasefire along the current front lines. The second source ​said Putin believes Russia will soon capture the Donbas.

The Russian president publicly rebuffed a call by Zelenskiy in June for a meeting and a ceasefire.

"Russia is ready for a peaceful resolution but has ⁠enough capability to act independently and continue the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a request for comment for this story.

-Reuters