Over a week after the United States-Russia summit in Alaska on August 15, 2025, hope for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia remain low. The summit did not achieve a ceasefire as it intended to, and violence has picked up.
On August 22, it was reported that US President Donald Trump had set a two-week time frame to assess Russia-Ukraine peace prospects. Originally, Trump had set an August 8 deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine or face heavy sanctions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia was avoiding the “necessity” of holding a meeting between the two countries’ leaders. Zelensky said that he could only meet with Putin after his allies agreed on security guarantees for Ukraine to deter Russian attacks.
A US official told France 24 that military chiefs from the United States and a number of European countries had developed military options on Ukraine and would be presenting them to their respective national security advisers
However, Russia said no to European troops in Ukraine. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said European proposals to deploy troops in Ukraine after a settlement would amount to “foreign intervention.” Lavrov said this would be absolutely unacceptable to Russia.
Both countries are preparing for further fighting. Ukraine is testing new weapons, and Zelensky said on August 21 that Russian attacks on various parts of Ukraine showed that Russia was avoiding negotiations to end the war.
On the same day, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a podcast broadcast on Facebook that Hungary has offered to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine twice, and the offer still stood. This development came after, on August 19, Politico reported that the White House was planning for a possible trilateral meeting between the US, Russian, and Ukrainian presidents in Budapest, according to a Trump administration official and a person close to the administration.
However, on August 24, Lavrov said that there were no plans for peace talks between Putin and Zelensky. Lavrov told NBC that Putin was ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda was ready for a summit, “and this agenda is not ready at all.”
Lavrov said that a group including Security Council members should guarantee Ukraine’s security. He noted that this group could include Germany and Turkey among other countries. However, Lavrov stressed that the guarantors “would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which must be non-aligned with any military bloc and which must be non-nuclear.”
Lavrov also insisted that NATO membership for Ukraine was unacceptable for Russia, that there was a territorial discussion to have with Ukraine, and that Russia wanted protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, fighting and fierce rhetoric has continued, with an end to the conflict nowhere in sight. From December 1, 2024 to May 31, 2025, 986 civilians were killed and 4,807 injured in Ukraine, a 37 percent increase compared to the same period the previous year. Russian civilians have also been killed in Ukrainian attacks.
Keywords: Ukraine, Russia, peace talks, Alaska, US-Russia summit, peace, conflict, conflict resolution
Tara Abhasakun
Tara Abhasakun is Peace News Network (PNN)'s managing editor. She is journalist based in Christchurch, New Zealand, and formerly in Bangkok, Thailand. She has reported on a range of human rights issues involving youth protests in Thailand, as well as arts and culture. Tara's work has appeared in several outlets, including Al Jazeera and South China Morning Post.
