Emergency services work at the scene of a Russian drone attack in Boryspil district on Thursday in Kyiv, Ukraine. Drones hit a warehouse and home. (Getty Images)
Russia is preparing to escalate its attacks on Ukraine after concluding that negotiations to end the war have reached a dead end, Bloomberg reported.
Moscow is considering intensifying conventional ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv, including the center of the Ukrainian capital, as well as infrastructure targets in other cities, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg.
The Kremlin believes negotiating frameworks have effectively collapsed and that the two sides are back at square one, the sources said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also is not prepared to end the war because of economic pressure from Western sanctions or Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and logistics networks.
Moscow increasingly views Ukraine’s strikes inside Russia as attacks by NATO countries because alliance members provide Kyiv with weapons and intelligence, according to Bloomberg. People close to the Kremlin warned that the current fighting has not yet reached its peak level of escalation.
Putin signaled the possibility of retaliation over the weekend, dismissing the economic impact of Ukraine’s attacks and accusing Kyiv of opening “this Pandora’s box.”
“Be ready to get a blowback on your most sensitive sectors of the economy,” Putin said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued a similar warning Thursday, saying Ukrainian attacks on Russian economic and trade infrastructure “will be” met with “a heavy response.”
Peskov denied that Moscow was seeking a broader military escalation, however, arguing that Russian forces are already advancing.
The warnings come as U.S.-led efforts to broker an end to the war have stalled, with President Donald Trump’s administration increasingly focused on the conflict with Iran.
According to Bloomberg, the Kremlin has also moved away from what it believed was an understanding reached between Trump and Putin during their Alaska summit last year. Moscow believed that framework would involve U.S. pressure on Ukraine to surrender the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine has repeatedly rejected Putin’s demand to give up a fortified belt of cities in Donetsk that Russian forces have failed to capture despite years of fighting.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare trip to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian officials. The Wall Street Journal reported the visit was intended to warn Moscow against attacking NATO countries.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it launched a “massive strike” against Ukraine overnight, targeting Kyiv and five other cities as well as infrastructure at the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Reni.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Moscow and Kyiv in another attempt to revive diplomacy, but no dates have been announced.
Without progress in negotiations, people close to the Kremlin told Bloomberg that Moscow sees few alternatives to further escalation as it pursues its war aims. Expectations for a diplomatic breakthrough remain low.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.