Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a three-way summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at a moment aerial strikes between the warring sides have been escalating for several consecutive days. “If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don’t mind. I am ready for any format,” Zelensky said Tuesday, in comments which were published Wednesday.

Zelensky said he’s ready for a “Trump-Putin-me” meeting, but simultaneously called for Washington to slap more sanctions on the Kremlin. “We are waiting for sanctions from the United States of America,” the Ukrainian leader said. And Trump’s response?… “If I think I’m close to getting a [peace] deal, I don’t wanna screw it up by doing that,” he told reporters at the White House.

Reporter: What’s stopping you from imposing sanctions on Russia? 

Trump: If I think I’m close to a deal, I don’t want to screw it up. Let me tell you: I’m much tougher than those you’re talking about. You have to know when to use it. I think it would hurt the deal.

‘I don’t want to screw it up’ – Trump explains why he won’t impose sanctions

– What’s stopping you from imposing sanctions on Russia?

– If I think I’m close to a deal, I don’t want to screw it up. Let me tell you: I’m much tougher than those you’re talking about. You have to… pic.twitter.com/WgSutLzcTb

— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) May 28, 2025

Mainstream media and pundits have also of late been pressuring the White House to escalate the economic war against Russia, despite some seventeen waves of sanctions since the conflict began not doing much if anything to change the actual course of the war.

Zelensky had also said in his comments, “Trump confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed. We discussed two main aspects with him – energy and the banking system. Will the U.S. be able to impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would very much like that.”

The Ukrainian leader is at the same time alleging that Russia is surging more troops to the battlefield:

On the battlefield, Zelenskyy said Russia was “amassing” more than 50,000 troops on the front line around the northeastern Sumy border region, where Moscow’s army has captured a number of settlements as it seeks to establish what Putin has called a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory.

NATO appears to be ‘answering’ with a build-up of its own, per Reuters on Wednesday:

NATO will ask Germany to provide seven more brigades, or some 40,000 troops, for the alliance’s defencs, three sources told Reuters, under new targets for weapons and troop numbers that its members’ defence ministers are set to agree on next week.

The alliance is dramatically increasing its military capability targets as it views Russia as a much greater threat since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

So Trump’s instincts to avoid sanctions, seeking to prevent further uncontrollable escalation at this sensitive point, are correct – at least from the perspective of avoiding action which would unnecessarily sabotage the chance for peace.

After all, there’s little the United States can do and each option is a ‘bad’ option, given Russia is in control on the ground in the Donbass. However, the US can lean on Kiev to make territorial concessions, given this is likely the only realistic option for permanent peace.

Meanwhile, Kremlin officials have been saying this week that they are concerned that the intelligence being provided to Trump is highly skewed in a hawkish direction. Lavrov has asserted that info given to the US Commander-in-Chief is likely “filtered” – and that he doesn’t have the full picture on the intensity of ongoing Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.

VERY interesting.

Lavrov alleges that Trump is not being fully briefed on everything regarding the situation in Ukraine, and that bad actors are giving him information “through a filter” in order to coerce the Trump admin into supporting Ukraine.

pic.twitter.com/Z7N6m6EeDK

— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) May 28, 2025

As an example of these kinds of recent attacks, the below shows a major strike on a site dubbed Russia’s “Silicon Valley”….

Moments ago, Ukrainian attack drones hit a major Russian cruise missile manufacturer north of Moscow, the Dubna Machine-Building Plant.

At least one drone slammed into the complex that produces long-range cruise missiles used to strike Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/V7iHp4N11e

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 28, 2025

“A major Ukrainian drone assault targeted the city of Zelenograd, known as Russia’s ‘Silicon Valley,’ as well as a machine-building plant north of Moscow, Russian media and Ukrainian officials reported Wednesday,” a regional source reported.