Russia insists on achieving Ukraine goals despite Trump's ultimatum
[July 21, 2025]
Russia is open to peace with Ukraine, but achieving its goals remains a
priority, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday, days after U.S.
President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a
ceasefire or face tougher sanctions.
Peskov and other Russian officials have repeatedly rejected accusations
from Kyiv and its Western partners of stalling peace talks. Meanwhile,
Moscow continues to intensify its long-range attacks on Ukrainian
cities, launching more drones in a single night than it did during some
entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to
escalate.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “has repeatedly spoken of his desire to
bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as
possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not
easy,” Peskov told state television in an interview.
“The main thing for us is to achieve our goals," he said. “Our goals are
clear.”
The Kremlin has insisted that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw
from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022,
but never fully captured. It also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to
join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces — demands Kyiv
and its Western allies have rejected.
In his nightly address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said that his officials have proposed a new round of peace
talks this week. Russian state media on Sunday reported that no date has
yet been set for the negotiations, but said that Istanbul would likely
remain the host city.
Truce or sanctions
Trump threatened Russia on July 14 with steep tariffs and announced a
rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening
his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration following
unsuccessful negotiations aimed at ending the war. The direct
Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul resulted in several rounds of
prisoner exchanges but little else.
The U.S. president said that he would implement “severe tariffs” unless
a peace deal is reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how
they would be implemented, but suggested they would target Russia’s
trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov waits at the Grand Kremlin Palace at
the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel
Bednyakov, Pool, file)
In addition, Trump said that European allies would buy “billions and
billions” of dollars of U.S. military equipment to be transferred to
Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country’s supplies of weapons.
Included in the plan are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority
for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles.
Doubts were recently raised about Trump’s commitment to supply
Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that U.S.
stockpiles were running low.
Drone strikes
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down 18 of 57
Shahed-type and decoy drones launched by Russia overnight into
Sunday, with seven more disappearing from radar.
Two women were wounded in Zaporizhzhia, a southern Ukrainian region
partly occupied by Russia, when a drone struck their house,
according to the regional military administration. Two more
civilians were wounded in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv province,
after a drone slammed into a residential building, local Ukrainian
officials said.
Later Sunday, drones struck a leafy square in the center of Sumy,
wounding a woman and her 7-year-old son, officials said. The strike
also damaged a power line, leaving around 100 households without
electricity, according to Serhii Krivosheienko, of the municipal
military administration.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said that its forces shot down
93 Ukrainian drones targeting Russian territory overnight, including
at least 15 that appeared to head for Moscow. At least 13 more
drones were downed on the approach to the capital on Sunday, Mayor
Sergei Sobyanin said. One drone struck a residential building in
Zelenograd, on the outskirts of Moscow, damaging an apartment, but
caused no casualties, he said.
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