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."
