The time to act is now, according to Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on cyber issues. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general who is not seeking reelection in 2026, said that discussions with Putin have proven futile and have indicated Putin isn’t serious about a deal.
"We’ve seen zero results from the talks as far as Putin being willing to compromise," Bacon said. "Although I think seeking negotiations was worthwhile initially, it showed Putin does not want peace."
The White House has maintained that Trump has made more progress in two weeks to resolve the conflict than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, did in more than three years, and pointed to Trump's meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy within days of each other.
"President Trump’s national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials toward a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a Friday statement to Fox News Digital.
Trump announced July 14 that he would sign off on "severe tariffs" against Russia if Moscow failed to agree to a peace deal within 50 days. He then dramatically reduced the deadline to only 10–12 days — which ended Aug. 8. But rather than lay on additional sanctions against Russia, Trump met with Putin a week later in Alaska and hailed the meeting a great success.
Still, progress stemming from the meeting appears limited. Russia did not agree to a ceasefire, and while Trump initially said a trilateral meeting with both Putin and Zelenskyy was in the works, Russia has shown disinterest in such a meeting.
RUSSIAN DRONE STRIKES KILL 7 IN KHARKIV DURING ZELENSKYY'S WHITE HOUSE MEETING WITH TRUMP
President Donald Trump, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, hold a meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Aug. 15, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. ( Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"I just don't see any really serious steps the administration has taken to inflict any punishment on Putin," Pifer said. "I think Putin's figured that out, and until Putin is disabused of that notion, he's going to keep missing deadlines."
Historically, Russia’s demands for a peace deal have included barring Ukraine from ever joining NATO, along with concessions on some of the borders that previously were Ukraine's.
Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute think tank, said that because Putin knows the U.S. is eager to end the war, Putin’s peace deal requirements are an attempt to turn up the heat on Ukraine.
Following Trump’s meeting with Putin and ahead of his meeting days later with Zelenskyy, the U.S. president put the onus on Ukraine to end the war – and said that Ukraine could end the war immediately if it agreed to cede Crimea to Russia, and abandon its bid for NATO membership.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump participate in a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Aug. 18, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
"Putin managed to sidestep U.S. sanctions in Alaska and is content slogging away in Ukraine," Rough told Fox News Digital Monday. "But he also recognizes that the U.S. wants this war to come to an end, so he has put forward a proposal intended to appeal to Washington in the hopes that the U.S. will put pressure on Ukraine to accept its terms. If he can divide the transatlantic alliance along the way, all the better. At the very least, it helps him stave off additional U.S. sanctions."
John Hardie, Russia program deputy director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that Putin isn’t interested in agreeing to a deal unless his terms are included in it. In the meantime, Putin is utilizing diplomacy to avoid economic consequences, Hardie said.
"I think Putin does want a deal — but only if it's on his terms," Hardie told Fox News Digital Monday. "Until that happens, he's bent on continuing the war, and Russia seeks to use diplomacy to forestall tougher U.S. economic pressure and redirect Trump's ire from Moscow to Kyiv."
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/putin-stringing-trump-along-sidestep-us-sanctions-while-bombing-ukraine