Trump again mulls Russia sanctions as Ukraine peace remains elusive one week after Alaska summit
One week after the Alaska summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the situation regarding Ukraine peace efforts remains deadlocked, and the possibility of new Russia sanctions is front and center.
At the Alaska summit, held on August 15, 2025, Trump and Putin failed to reach a substantive agreement on ending the Russia-Ukraine war. While Trump said “great progress” was made, no deal was struck, and the talks ended without a path forward on peace or a ceasefire. Russia’s demands—in particular, for Ukraine to cede additional territory and to forswear NATO membership—remain unacceptable to Ukraine, which refuses to negotiate while hostilities continue.
In the week following the summit, Trump repeatedly voiced frustration with Moscow over its recent attacks in Ukraine, including a strike on a US-owned factory. He gave Russia (and Ukraine) a two-week deadline to show progress toward peace, threatening, “I’m going to make a decision regarding our actions, and it’s going to be significant—whether that entails imposing severe sanctions, hefty tariffs, or possibly both, or if we simply refrain from taking action and state that it’s your conflict,” signaling that new, potentially “massive” sanctions could be imposed if there’s no movement. However, he also left open the option to “do nothing,” making his next step deliberately ambiguous.
Meanwhile, Trump has been pushing for a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, asserting it is the only real avenue to settle the conflict. Russia, though, has signaled no readiness for such a meeting, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating the agenda is “not ready at all” and blaming Ukraine for lack of flexibility.
The US had temporarily eased some targeted Russian financial sanctions just ahead of the Alaska meeting to facilitate logistics, but the threat of heavier sanctions—potentially including both direct and secondary penalties on Russia and countries buying Russian oil—remains Trump’s chief leverage as peace talks stagnate.
Ukraine peace remains elusive and fighting continues.
Trump has issued a two-week window for progress, after which severe new sanctions on Russia are possible.
Pressure is mounting for a Putin–Zelenskyy meeting, but there is no progress on that front.
The US administration remains undecided, using the threat of “massive” economic penalties as its main negotiating tool, but not ruling out other options—including inaction—if the situation does not change.
The next two weeks will be decisive for US policy toward Russia and for the diplomatic future of the Ukraine war.
