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.