Trump Weighs More Sanctions, Abandoning Peace Process, As Russia Says Deadly Strikes Are 'Retaliation'

Russia has made clear on Tuesday that it will continue targeting military-related facilities in Ukraine in response to a drastic increase in drone raids launched by Ukrainian forces deep into Russian territory. The defense ministry (MoD) has condemned these attacks out of Ukraine as aimed at civilian infrastructure.

Kiev has simultaneously charged that Moscow is targeting hospitals, schools, and civilian residences after several consecutive days of large-scale drone and missile attacks. The past week has on the other side seen at least 2,000 UAVs sent against Russian territory.

Russia's MoD released a statement which is without doubt trying to signal the Trump administration at a moment the US president is thinking about slapping more sanctions of Russia, amid frustration at lack of progress in peace negotiations.

It emphasizes that the retaliatory attacks are aimed "exclusively at Ukraine’s military and defense industrial facilities" - and it further provided a list of "military bases, warehouses, airfields, radar stations, as well as drone assembly, gun powder, and explosives plants."

But something Trump is not going to respond well to is the following: "The Russian military will continue to carry out massive and group strikes in response to any terrorist attacks and provocations of the Kiev regime," the MoD said. "The strikes will be carried out exclusively on military facilities and enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine."

The military statement stressed that at the moment Moscow is an open and willing participant in the US-backed peace talks, the latest which were held in Istanbul, it remains "the Kiev regime, supported by certain European countries, has taken a number of provocative steps aimed at disrupting the negotiation process."

Currently, the Western mainstream media is trying to goad President Trump into escalating against Moscow, and likely hawks within the US administration are also seizing on the 'popular' pressure:

It dismissed Trump’s frustration with the most intense Russian drone attacks on Ukraine as a symptom of “emotional overload.” And experience suggests Putin can get away with calling the US president’s bluff. After all, Trump’s Truth Social critique of the Russian leader as “crazy” on Monday was leavened with a characteristic rebuke of the victim — Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Still, the intensifying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians appear to be a deliberate Russian test for Trump, a week after his hyped call with Putin, which made no progress toward peace despite the White House spin.

But again, despite mounting casualties in Kiev and elsewhere from the waves of aerial assaults, Moscow is insisting it is not targeting civilians.

This has been enough for Trump to signal that punitive measures against Russia could be coming. Trump is mulling imposing yet more sanctions on Russia this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

He said directly starting Sunday, as missiles on Kiev kept coming, that he is "absolutely" considering them. Putin is "killing a lot of people" and that "I don’t know what’s wrong with him. What the hell happened to him?"

WSJ detailed, "The restrictions likely wouldn’t include new banking sanctions, one of the people said, but other options are under discussion to pressure the Russian leader into concessions at the negotiating table, including a 30-day cease-fire supported by Ukraine that Russia has long rejected." This was all supposedly based on "people familiar with Trump's thinking."

More importantly, this would be seen as the abandonment of already fragile efforts and finding a truce deal. Yet the sanctions would likely have little impact, given they would be something like the 18th wave of US sanctions, as Russia has increased its reliance on China trade, and other BRICS countries.

The timing couldn't be worse in terms of potential for runaway escalation, given it was just on Monday that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Germany, France, the UK and US have lifted prior restrictions on how far the weapons they supply to Ukraine can reach. "Absolutely no limits...," he said.

"There are absolutely no range limits anymore for weapons delivered to Ukraine, not from Britain, the French or from us — also not from the Americans," Merz said speaking at a national security forum in Berlin on Monday. "That means Ukraine can defend itself by attacking military positions also in Russia." This 'greenlight' would of course translate to Russia stepping up its own ballistic missile strikes across Ukraine and 'command centers' - and places where foreign advisers might be as well.