US President Donald Trump has set an August 8 deadline for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to begin talks to end the war in Ukraine. On July 29, Trump said he was "disappointed" with Putin.
This is according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Trump said that Putin is seeking to seize "all" of Ukraine and "probably" wants to "continue the war". Trump said he would impose secondary sanctions on Russia's economic partners on August 8 to apply pressure if Putin again refuses to negotiate.
On July 30, Trump announced that the United States would impose a 25 percent tariff and unspecified additional economic sanctions on India over its continued purchases of Russian military equipment and energy since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine.
ISW previously noted that India continues to pursue military cooperation and strategic economic relations with Russia, while simultaneously deepening its ties with Western countries.
India has benefited from cheap Russian energy since February 2022 and has become one of the largest importers of Russian oil, signing a 10-year energy deal in December 2024. to obtain approximately 500,000 barrels of Russian oil per day.
Russia also uses its relationship with India to gain access to critical electronic components and machinery for Russia's defense industrial base.
Kremlin officials continued to demonstrate economic strength and rejected Trump's efforts to end the war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to Trump's July 29 remarks that the Russian economy has been operating under sanctions for "quite a long time" and has developed "immunity" to further sanctions - effectively rejecting Trump.
The claims by Peskov and other Kremlin officials largely ignore Russia's dependence on its allies and partners, including China, Iran, and North Korea, to support the Russian economy and defense industrial base.
Trump emphasized on July 30, for example, that China is one of the largest buyers of Russian energy exports.
ISW continues to assess that Russia's past attempts to manipulate the ceasefire are an indicator of how it is likely to take advantage of any future agreements.
According to reports, the Russian presidential administration has issued guidelines to Russian state and pro-Kremlin media outlets and commentators to promote narratives aimed at weakening the alliance between the United States and the European Union (EU). The Russian opposition publication "Meduza" reported on July 30 that the Department of Public Projects of the Russian Presidential Administration had issued a manual to Russian state and pro-Kremlin media outlets and pro-government voices with instructions on how to structure their coverage and commentary on the July 27 US-EU trade agreement.
The manual reportedly instructed them to discuss the US-EU trade agreement as "doubtful" and "a defeat" for the EU and portray Germany as the one suffering the most from the agreement.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the Chairman of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Leonid Slutsky have all claimed in statements that the US-EU trade deal is harmful or humiliating for the EU, with Slutsky specifically criticizing German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The Kremlin continues to promote an informal state ideology centered on Russian nationalism, which Russia may intend to use to justify a prolonged war in Ukraine and a future conflict against NATO.
Russian forces continue to systematically violate the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which they are a party. Ukraine's Security Service reported on July 30 that it had documented over 10,000 cases of Russian forces using munitions containing chemical agents banned by the CWC since the start of the war in February 2022.
The SBU noted that Russian forces frequently use ampoules filled with chloropicrin and aerosol grenades containing chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile and chloroacetophenone, both types of riot control agents. The SBU said that Russian forces most often use drones to drop chemical munitions on Ukrainian positions along the front line to dislodge Ukrainian soldiers from fortified positions. The SBU recorded the highest number of incidents in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (southwest of the city of Zaporizhia and across the Kakhovka Dam from Russian positions in occupied Energodar, Zaporizhia Oblast).
ISW has observed reports that Russian forces have coated "Shahed" drones with toxic substances, possibly as part of the Kremlin's efforts to inflict more casualties on Ukrainian civilians.