Three people close to the Kremlin said Russia, having judged peace talks to be
at a dead end, is preparing to escalate military strikes on Ukraine. Moscow is
considering stepped-up heavy conventional ballistic-missile strikes on Kyiv and
other Ukrainian cities’ infrastructure targets, the sources said. They added
that Putin is unlikely to end the war in response to sanctions or Ukrainian
attacks on Russian refineries and logistics, and that Moscow increasingly views
Ukrainian strikes as attacks by NATO states because of weapons and intelligence
support. The sources said the current phase of hostilities has not yet reached
the peak of military escalation.
