In brief: Despite the desire of senior US officials to bring Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, there are still no signs that Russia seeks peace. On the contrary, an analysis of Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov’s statements clearly indicate that Russia is looking for new ways to escalate the conflict.

by  Sergii Kostezh | Aug. 3, 2026,

CONTENT

• Putin’s statement #1: On Ukraine supposedly declaring Russians a “non-titular nation” in Ukraine
• Putin’s statement #2: On Russians wondering what they will do when the war ends
• Lavrov’s statement: Maximalist demands

Recently, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the White House intends to intensify its efforts to restart peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

“In the coming weeks, you will see certain efforts aimed at determining whether we can resume negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and bring this war to an end. But we also understand that both sides have fairly clear red lines, and until we can bring those red lines somewhat closer together, we will not reach our goal. Nevertheless, we are ready to act, and the president [US President Donald Trump] has told his team: if you see an opportunity to become the force that can give momentum to peace negotiations, then let’s do it,” Rubio said.

All previous attempts at such “efforts” arguably amounted to pressuring Ukraine into de-facto capitulation and restricting arms deliveries to Ukraine while Russia continued to intensify its strikes against civilians, advance on the battlefield, and destroy one Donbas city after another.

Since the first attempts by the US to pressure Ukraine into accepting all of Russia’s demands for the sake of “peace,” Russia has destroyed Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, Pokrovske, Myrnohrad, and Druzhkivka – cities with a combined pre-war population of nearly 300,000 – as well as dozens of villages. It has carried out more than 20 massive strikes on Kyiv, killing hundreds of people, while also advancing several kilometers along the front.

It is difficult to envisage anything positive from new attempts at “peace-making,” especially after Rubio’s remarks about “bringing the red lines closer together.” The Trump administration has not yet overly recognized one fundamental point. The cause of the war – and the reason it continues – is not the situation on the battlefield. The cause lies deep inside Russia itself. This becomes evident from the latest statements by senior Russian officials, for whom the war has become a tool for maintaining the regime.

Putin’s statement #1: On Ukraine supposedly declaring Russians a “non-titular nation” in Ukraine

Just another speech by Putin at yet another event with military personnel initially – once again a historical excursion that bore little resemblance to history. On July 27, however, Putin was remarkably candid.

“They [Ukraine’s leadership] considered it necessary, possible, and beneficial for themselves to declare Russia their enemy, and to declare Russians a ‘non-titular nation’ in Ukraine, which is utter nonsense, complete absurdity,” the Kremlin leader said.

Here, Putin voiced the Kremlin’s true position regarding the genocide of Ukrainians being carried out every day in the occupied territories and which, according to the original plan, was also a fate intended for Kyiv. For Putin, Ukraine as a nation does not exist.

In his view, Ukrainians are merely part of the Russian people and therefore have no right to their own language or culture. This is precisely why Putin considers the very existence of Ukrainians – rather than Russians – as Ukraine’s largest national community to be “complete absurdity.”

Incidentally, Russia’s plan to eliminate Ukraine as a sovereign state was announced at the very beginning of the full-scale invasion. It was presented by one of Putin’s political strategists, Timofey Sergeytsev, in his lengthy article “What Should Russia Do with Ukraine?”

According to Sergeytsev’s concept, approximately five percent of Ukrainians – the representatives of the country’s cultural, military, and business elites who carry Ukrainian national identity, roughly two million people – were considered “beyond re-education” and therefore had to be eliminated. Everyone else, shocked by the murder of those millions, would then be easier to Russify. It was about the supposed “de-Ukrainization of Ukraine”.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Russia revised its standards for mass burials and introduced new ones, specifying the dimensions of burial pits intended for simultaneous mass graves and the construction equipment required to dig them. Russia did not expect high loses during the war, so, it was clear for whom these standards were approved.

In the occupied territories, this is largely what happened. Village heads, city mayors, business leaders, and members of the cultural intelligentsia who refused to cooperate, were killed. They were replaced by Russian teachers in schools and Russian officials in local administrations. Even local collaborators were eventually removed by transferring them to jobs elsewhere in Russia, including Siberia.

The Russian language became dominant, while speaking Ukrainian in the occupied territories could cost a person their life – or lead to torture. Representatives of the occupation administration openly describe in interviews how such practices are typically carried out “to clean the city.”

Putin’s statement #2: On Russians wondering what they will do when the war ends

The most revealing part of Putin’s July 27 speech concerned the prospect of the war ending.

“When the Special Military Operation ends, what will we do? It will end… Well, it will end sooner or later, but we must preserve this quality, this sense of unity. I meet with people who help the military on the home front, and they do it wholeheartedly! That’s where I heard this phrase: when the Special Military Operation ends, what will we do? People have become so absorbed in it, they devote themselves to it with all their hearts. And they have this feeling of anxiety – will anyone still need them the way they are needed now?” Putin shared.

Since it has long been known that Putin does not meet ordinary Russians except those specially selected and organized for his visits, many observers and analysts believe that these words primarily reflect his own wishes and perceptions.

This is not the first statement of this kind.

Several years ago, during a meeting with the wives of fallen soldiers, Putin said that their husbands’ deaths were a good thing, because the alternative would have been drinking themselves to death in some provincial town. His exact words were:

“The question is: how did we live? Some people live – or perhaps they don’t, it’s hard to tell – and die from vodka. Did they really live? Can you even call that a life? Life simply flew by, and that was it. But your son lived! And he achieved his purpose, which means he did not die in vain,” Putin told one of the mothers during a meeting in the autumn of 2022.

Putin’s statements carry a clear propaganda message and, according to leading analysts and social psychologists, are aimed at normalizing war.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of Russia’s leading journalists of the 1990s and 2000s, Dmitry Muratov, described this psychological effect by saying that Putin feels at war like a fish in water. It is an integral part of his regime, his method of mobilizing and governing society. It is no coincidence that during his rule, Stalinism – one of the most brutal regimes of the 20th century – has undergone a historic rehabilitation.

“For Putin, that war – the Second World War – never ended. Because of his age, Putin did not have the opportunity to take part in World War II. But I believe he wants to achieve his own victory in that war. That victory consists of defending the outcomes of World War II that he considers to be the correct ones. That is where he is now – he is fighting in World War II,” Muratov said in one of his interviews.

Lavrov’s statement: Maximalist demands

On July 29, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave a lengthy interview to the Kremlin’s principal mouthpiece – the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS).

During the interview, he reiterated the Kremlin’s maximalist demands, including:

• The inadmissibility of financial and military assistance to Ukraine
• The inadmissibility of refusing to recognize Russia’s claim to the occupied territories, including those that have since been liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine
• The need for “more decisive action,” particularly regarding rearmament
• Accusing the West of waging war against Russia while denying Ukraine the right to independent agency
• Labeling any Western proposals as “ultimatums” and ruling out the US as a potential mediator

According to analysts interviewed by Kyiv Post, all of this indicates that Russia has no intention of stopping and is not interested in peace. Lavrov’s rhetoric about “Russian pride” and “healthy anger,” together with Putin’s claims that “the people have embraced” the war, point to the Kremlin’s desire to use the war as a means of strengthening the political regime.

Indeed, whilst before 2022 many Russians openly complained about oligarchs, government officials, and their privileges – such as using emergency vehicle sirens to bypass traffic jams, the unfair distribution of national wealth, and similar issues – such discussions have virtually disappeared because of the war. At the same time, the fighting has enabled the regime to tighten its grip significantly. Over the past four years, Russia has adopted numerous laws prohibiting criticism of the authorities and the military, while the largest Western communication platforms have been blocked.

All of this points to one simple conclusion: war has long since become an integral component – if not the very backbone – of Putin’s regime. If the war were to end, Russia would face a profound crisis. Its economy is deteriorating under the pressure of sanctions, inflation is accelerating rapidly, crime has been rising for three consecutive years due to the growing number of unemployed veterans, and Russia’s total losses are approaching one and a half million working-age men. This will create an entirely new set of problems for which a country exhausted by sanctions and war may struggle to find solutions.

That is precisely why the Kremlin will continue the war for as long as it has the capacity to do so – regardless of who in the world wants peace.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/81604