The fragile hopes for a breakthrough in the Ukraine war, kindled by the high-profile August 2025 summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, have all but evaporated, according to top Russian officials. In a series of statements this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov acknowledged that the "powerful momentum generated by Anchorage in favor of agreements ... has largely gone." Speaking to Interfax, Ryabkov placed much of the blame on "destructive activities, primarily by the Europeans," asserting that both supporters and opponents of the war have contributed to the collapse of diplomatic progress.
Ryabkov's remarks come amid a fresh surge of violence and escalating rhetoric on both sides. On October 7 and 8, Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged deadly strikes. Russian airstrikes seriously damaged a major thermal power plant in Ukraine's Chernihiv region, leaving parts of the area without electricity and injuring two DTEK power engineers, according to statements from Ukraine's largest private energy company. DTEK reported that its power plants have now suffered over 200 attacks since Russia's invasion in 2022. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces targeted Russia's Belgorod region, with Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov confirming that at least three people were killed and a social facility in Maslova Pristan was partially destroyed by Ukrainian shelling.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones overnight, nearly half of them over the Russia-Ukraine border region. No drones appeared to target Moscow, officials said. The Ukrainian Air Force, for its part, reported that Russia launched a massive 183 combat drones at Ukraine the same night, 154 of which were intercepted. Twenty-two strikes hit eleven different locations across Ukraine, underscoring the intensity of the ongoing conflict.
These exchanges are set against a backdrop of shifting political and military strategies. In Kyiv, the Ukrainian parliament voted to extend the terms of local representatives until martial law ends. Local elections, originally scheduled for October 26, 2025, have been postponed due to the impossibility of holding votes during wartime. As a result, mayors, city and municipal councilors, and regional parliaments will remain in office until elections can safely be held after the war concludes.
On the international stage, the possibility of the United States supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles has emerged as a new flashpoint. Russian officials have issued stark warnings in response. Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament's Defense Committee, told the RIA state news agency, "We know these missiles very well, how they fly, how to shoot them down; we worked with them in Syria, so there is nothing new. Only those who supply them and those who use them will have problems." Kartapolov added that Russia would "respond harshly" if Tomahawks were delivered to Ukraine, and that Russian forces would destroy any launchers with drones and missiles.
Ryabkov echoed these sentiments, urging Washington to "assess the situation soberly" and warning that the appearance of U.S. Tomahawk missiles in Ukraine would represent a "qualitative" change in the conflict. He called on the United States to take a "sober and responsible approach," emphasizing that such a move would be seen as a serious escalation.
President Trump, for his part, has been cautious. On October 6, he told reporters that he wanted to know what Ukraine planned to do with the Tomahawk missiles before making a final decision. "I thought that would have been one of the easy ones. I get along very well with [Russian president Vladimir] Putin and I thought that would have been... I'm very disappointed in him because I thought this would have been an easy one to settle, but it turned out to be maybe tougher than the Middle East," Trump said, according to European Pravda. He has indicated that he has "sort of made a decision" on the matter but has not provided specifics, wary of escalating the war further.
On the battlefield, Russian officials have claimed significant advances. President Putin boasted at a meeting in St. Petersburg that Russian forces "fully hold the strategic initiative" in Ukraine, asserting that they have "liberated nearly 5,000 square km of territory – 4,900 – and 212 localities" this year. General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia's armed forces, echoed Putin's assessment, stating that Russian troops are "advancing in practically all directions," with the heaviest fighting currently gripping Pokrovsk and areas towards Dnipropetrovsk. Ukrainian forces, Gerasimov said, are focused on slowing the Russian advance.
The conflict's impact extends far beyond the front lines. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, declared that Europe faces a campaign of "hybrid warfare" involving airspace violations, cyberattacks, and sabotage of undersea cables. "This is not random harassment," von der Leyen said. "It is a coherent and escalating campaign to unsettle our citizens, test our resolve, divide our Union, and weaken our support for Ukraine. And it is time to call it by its name. This is hybrid warfare." She stopped short of directly blaming Russia for every incident but said it was clear Moscow's aim is to "sow division" in Europe. Von der Leyen called for a "broad response" that goes beyond traditional defense, urging unity, deterrence, and resolve among EU members.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, has been pressing allies to respond to Russia's use of a "shadow fleet" for sabotage and destabilization in Europe, including the alleged launch of drones from tankers. "The Russians must know that none of their destructive actions – all the vile things they do – will go unanswered by the world," Zelensky said, emphasizing ongoing efforts to convince Ukraine's partners to take tangible steps in response.
Amid these mounting tensions, Russia's parliament has approved the country's withdrawal from the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) with the United States. This landmark deal, signed in 2000 and effective since 2011, required both nations to dispose of at least 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium each—a quantity sufficient for up to 17,000 nuclear warheads, according to U.S. officials. Russia suspended its participation in 2016, citing U.S. sanctions, NATO expansion, and changes to American plutonium disposal methods. Now, with the official withdrawal, the symbolic end to another pillar of post-Cold War nuclear cooperation has arrived.
As both sides dig in—militarily, politically, and diplomatically—the Ukraine war shows little sign of abating. Hopes for a negotiated peace, once buoyed by the spectacle of the Putin-Trump summit, have faded into the background of relentless violence and hardening positions. The world, it seems, will have to brace for a prolonged period of uncertainty and continued conflict in Eastern Europe.
