Putin said to plan Ukraine escalation, seeing talks fruitless.
- Russia is preparing to intensify attacks on Ukraine after concluding that negotiations toward a peace agreement have reached a dead end.
- Moscow is considering heavier conventional ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv, including the city center, as well as infrastructure targets across other Ukrainian cities.
- Negotiation frameworks have effectively collapsed, leaving Russia and Ukraine back at square one. Putin is not expected to end the war in response to economic pressure from sanctions or Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries and logistics networks.