Russian leader Vladimir Putin lied to US President Donald Trump about his intention to end the war against Ukraine. The American leader eventually realized it, stated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with the New York Post.

President Donald Trump announced this week that the U.S. will send Patriot air-defense missiles to Ukraine and threatened new tariffs on Russia. Will Vladimir Putin back down? What should Trump's next move be? And what does the future hold for Ukraine? Newsweek contributors Daniel R. DePetris and Dan Perry debate:

President Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by Donald Trump's threats of tougher sanctions, and his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance,

And so it was, just two days after Donald Trump revealed he had decided to lift his administration’s pause on the supply of US-made weapons to Ukraine, that Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov,

Putin ally warns Moscow will launch preventative strikes against the west ‘if necessary’ - Russian air defence units destroyed 122 Ukrainian drones overnight that targeted the capital Moscow, official

It is believed that Russia has been unable to secure more than one percent of additional territory from Ukraine since early 2024, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio citing that Russian forces have suffered the loss of over 100,000 troops in the first half of 2025 alone.

Despite President Trump’s 50-day ultimatum and the threat of severe secondary sanctions, Vladimir Putin remains defiant, vowing to continue the war in Ukraine “until he gets what he wants.” -According to a recent Reuters report citing Kremlin sources,

Sitting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and apparently fed up with being slow-walked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump threatened the Kremlin with tough tariffs if it doesn't make a deal to end the war within 50 days. But perhaps more important was Trump's shift on weapons.

Three days earlier, the war had spilled across the breadth of Russia as the Ukrainians smuggled a fleet of cheap drones across the border and used them to attack several military airfields, damaging or destroying Russian warplanes worth billions of dollars.