Trump Admin’s Secret Talks With Moscow ‘Fruitless’ As Putin Boasts Troops Advancing ‘Along Entire Frontline’

In Thursday comments President Trump condemned what he called Russia’s “disgusting” strikes on the Ukrainian capital from the night prior, which left 28 dead according to the continually rising death toll, after emergency crews have been picking through rubble of a collapsed apartment building.

The Trump administration has also informed the UN Security Council that a deal needs to be reached by August 8, or else new tariffs and sanctions targeting Russia and its trading partners will be unleashed.

“Both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace. It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace,” US diplomat John Kelley told the UN Security Council, according to Reuters.

Trump is still seeking to distance himself from the conflict, given he’s calling it “Biden’s war”.

There’s apparently been a big push behind the scenes, focused on secret talks, to make something happen with Russia on the peace front, as the NY Times writes:

Mr. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged in an interview with Fox News Radio that the administration held secret talks with Russia this week — “not with Putin but with some of Putin’s top people” — and made no progress on a cease-fire. Mr. Trump said he was dispatching his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Russia again, but the last visit that Mr. Witkoff, a fellow real estate investor, paid to Mr. Putin proved fruitless.

Administration officials gave no reasons to believe the latest engagement with Russia would be any more useful. And Mr. Trump himself, usually a true believer in the power of economic sanctions to alter the decisions of foreign leaders, admitted for the second time this week that Mr. Putin appears to be immune.

But then Trump has also conceded that “I don’t know that sanctions bother him” – in reference to Putin and the fact that the Russian economy has been doing relatively well considering the Western-imposed isolation.

It was merely months ago that Trump’s top officials, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, were in Europe declaring that Ukraine would never be in NATO and even suggesting that ultimately the war is not Moscow’s fault, breaking sharply with the Western defense establishment. There was also the Oval Office shouting match with Zelensky, where Vice President JD Vance called out the Ukrainian leader.

NY Times’ commentary continues by pointing out a complete 180 in Trump’s thinking on Ukraine, further pointing to the fresh Rubio interview:

That has been followed by a series of apparent reversals, with no public acknowledgment from Mr. Trump that he is changing strategy. He no longer relies on what he has framed as a deep past relationship with Mr. Putin in an effort to win him over. In fact, he has been quite open about his frustration that conversations about cease-fires are usually followed by Russian escalation, often in the pace of drone and missile attacks.

“I think what bothers the president the most is he has these great phone calls where everyone sort of claims yeah, we’d like to see this end, if we could find a way forward,” Mr. Rubio said in his Fox interview, “and then he turns on the news and another city has been bombed, including those far from the front lines.”

“So at some point,” Mr. Rubio told his interviewer, Brian Kilmeade of Fox News Radio, “he’s got to make a decision here about what — how much to continue to engage in an effort to do cease-fires if one of the two sides is not interested.”

As if demonstrating his lack of concern over Trump’s ultimatum, President Putin has on Friday declared that his troops are advancing along the “entirety of the frontlines”.

Putin does not look too worried on Friday…

Putin and Lukashenko met on Valaam. The President of Belarus arrived in Russia on a working visit.

The leaders of the two countries greeted each other warmly and later took part in a prayer service at the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. pic.twitter.com/1QG8PoAuHg

— Russian Market (@runews) August 1, 2025

According to a summary of his fresh remarks:

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow’s goals in Ukraine remained unchanged and claimed that Russian troops are advancing “along entire frontline” in Ukraine.

In comments reported by Reuters, Putin also said that the new deadly Oreshnik missile system is now being mass produced, with first deliveries already made to the army. At the same time, he said he hoped peace talks between Russia and Ukraine would continue, but warned against inflated expectations as to what can be realistically achieved.

He also insisted that the issue of the war would need to be addressed “in the context of European security as a whole,” which in the past was linked to his expansive security demands relating to large parts of central and eastern Europe.

Trump’s position, based on his latest remarks, is that the war “should be stopped, It’s a disgrace.” And yet the US still appears unwilling to strongly pressure Zelensky to make territorial concessions and to declare Ukraine will never join NATO. Washington also still continues arming Kiev. These things remain red lines for Russia.