LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Russia has responded to President Trump's own repeated threats of sanctions with stepped-up airstrikes against Ukraine.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
In fact, Russia now carries out far more attacks than it did before Trump reentered the White House in January.
FADEL: NPR's Greg Myre recently returned to Washington after a month in Ukraine and joins me now. Good morning, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: So President Trump, you know, keeps warning Russia he's going to do something. He sets deadlines that come and go. With these stepped-up attacks, what is the president saying now?
MYRE: Well, he says he's still thinking about sanctions, but he's noncommittal. Trump says he expects to speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the next couple days. Now, it's been a month since the two leaders met in Alaska without any movement toward a ceasefire. Trump has been threatening sanctions more or less since March, and he keeps saying he's not happy with Russia, that we'll see what happens in two weeks. But his only real action so far has been 50% tariffs on India because it's buying Russian oil. Now, Russia's economy is relatively weak, but oil and gas sales have allowed the country to chug along during the war. More sanctions would further strain the economy. It's not clear how much pain they would inflict.
FADEL: Is there any sign the Russian position is changing?
MYRE: Well, politically, Russia is just not budging. The Kremlin says sanctions will not force Russia to change its stance, and the key demand is still international recognition of Russian control over Ukrainian territory. Militarily, Russia is just becoming more and more aggressive. Russia is able to increase airstrikes on Ukraine because it has ramped up its own domestic drone production. Before this year, Leila, Russia was firing perhaps a couple dozen drones into Ukraine on a typical night. This year, the number has soared. It first began hitting a hundred or more a night and now many hundreds. Sunday was the heaviest assault yet - more than 800 drones - and Russia appears capable of sustaining this pace and has ignored Trump's calls without suffering any consequences.
FADEL: How is Ukraine dealing with these intensified attacks?
MYRE: Well, Ukraine has to scramble every night. Russia typically attacks three, four, five cities. These tend to be different cities every night. Ukraine responds with sending up helicopters, fighter jets, electronic jamming, machine guns. And increasingly, Ukraine is making its own defensive drones that shoot down Russia's incoming offensive drones. Now, Ukraine still takes down the majority of these Russian drones, but some get through, and they're often followed by missiles which inflict even greater damage.
FADEL: Now, Greg, you were in Ukraine when Trump hosted Putin last month here in the U.S. How is that summit viewed in Ukraine? And at this point, are there prospects for peace?
MYRE: Well, not really. Ukrainians were deeply skeptical with the Trump-Putin meeting. Ukrainians are exhausted by the war. They are open to negotiations to end the conflict, but they just don't think Putin will make any concessions. Now, they're even supportive of Trump's peace efforts, and they were pleased when he hosted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House just a few days after the Putin meeting. But the vast majority of Ukrainians believe Putin is just stringing Trump along, buying time, hoping that Russia can win a war of attrition. Here in Washington, there's still this strong focus that Trump might do something that could lead to ceasefire negotiations. But in Ukraine, I just heard people saying they have to depend on themselves. They can't count on the U.S. or others.
FADEL: That's NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you for your reporting, Greg.
MYRE: Sure thing, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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