After a two-hour phone call with United States President Donald Trump on May 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin again refused to agree to a full ceasefire with Ukraine. Putin said he is willing to negotiate a “memorandum regarding a potential future peace treaty” but offered no deadline for achieving this.

President Trump remains determined to secure a legacy of “peacemaker and unifier,” as he promised the world at his inauguration in January. He has often said that he remains optimistic that Putin wants peace and will turn over a new leaf.

But Putin’s actions since Mr. Trump’s return to the Oval Office show that this optimism and trust is wildly misplaced. Though Putin is willing to engage in discussions about a peace deal, this appears to be mainly a strategy of buying time in an effort to bore the Americans into abandoning Ukraine. He will accept nothing less than asserting full control over Ukraine. His ceaseless attacks make that clear.

Putin Still Wants War

The grim list of Putin’s violence grows daily.

• Just hours after agreeing to a 30-day energy infrastructure ceasefire deal with Ukraine on March 18, Russia bombed energy infrastructure in Slovyansk, Ukraine.
• On March 28, Putin vowed that his army would “finish off” Ukrainian troops, even after talking with Trump about a ceasefire.
• On April 1, Russia announced a conscription of 160,000 additional men, ages 18 to 30, for military service, the nation’s highest number of conscripts since 2011.
• On April 3, Russian drones killed five civilians and injured 35 in Kharkiv.
• The next day, a Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih killed 20 people, including nine children.
• On April 14, two Russian ballistic missiles struck near the city center of Sumy: 34 people were killed and 117 others were wounded in one of Russia’s deadliest attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the attack, saying, “This Friday marked exactly one month since Russia spurned the U.S. proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire. They are not afraid.”
• A Russian mass drone attack killed three and injured at least 30 on April 16 in the southeastern city of Dnipro. Five children were injured in the attack, including a 9-month-old baby.

Hopes of progress were dashed last week when Putin refused to attend the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, Turkey. Russia instead sent a low-level Kremlin aide, provoking Zelenskyy’s decision not to attend himself, instead sending his defense minister. Ultimately, the talks were short and fruitless.

Why Will Putin Not Stop Warring?

Vladimir Putin’s actions are not those of a leader looking to pursue peace. He has made abundantly clear that he is pursuing total domination of Ukraine and will not be deterred by the words and hopes of President Trump.

War is vital to maintaining his grip on power in Russia, strengthening his legitimacy and giving Russians a sense of national pride and purpose. War also is an excuse to maintain Russia’s militarized state of emergency, affording Putin increased dictatorial control. Continuing to wage war postpones Russia having to deal with the crises it faces, including soaring inflation, sky-high interest rates, labor shortages, widespread substance abuse, the developed world’s highest aids rates, veteran trauma and other societal and moral issues. Russians are suffering in myriad ways but as long as the war rages, Putin can convince them that their declining standard of living is a necessary and noble sacrifice for the war effort.

Russia’s power and potential for prosperity is so connected to its ability to wage war that if it were to end its war on Ukraine, its economy would suffer significantly. A report by the Center for European Policy Analysis found that after 40 months of full-scale war, Russia’s economy is so deeply tied to military spending that without it stagnation would be paralyzing.

Putin may claim that he wants peace, but his engagement in peace talks is simply a convenient attempt to to buy time and international legitimacy. He has constructed Russia in such a way that war actually supports its functioning rather than hinders it.

But the most fundamental reason he will continue refusing to make peace with Ukraine: to rebuild the collapsed Soviet Union.

In his 2005 State of the Nation address, Vladimir Putin infamously called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical disaster of the [20th] century.”

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote:

Given the dozens of millions of Soviet citizens who were imprisoned, persecuted and murdered under that authoritarian system, most of us would say the opposite! Putin not only mourns the ussr’s collapse—he is bent on rebuilding it and restoring the glory of imperial Russia!

Putin will not be satisfied with nor accept anything less than reviving the Soviet empire and making modern Russia the world’s next superpower. Whatever the price, Putin is willing to pay it.

Falling Prey to Putin

These recent negotiation efforts are not the first time President Trump has expressed his eagerness to court Putin. On July 31, 2015, then presidential candidate Donald Trump said publicly, “I think I would just get along very well with Vladimir Putin.” Throughout his campaign, he repeated the sentiment.

At the time, Mr. Flurry emphatically warned, “Putin will stay true to his character and prey on President Trump and America as he has preyed on others. And we will deserve it for having cozied up with him.”

Today, Putin is preying on President Trump and playing him for a fool. Whether Trump is willingly ignorant or sincerely duped, the Bible warns that there will be a high price to pay.

More than any other factor, it is Bible prophecy that shines the clear light on Vladimir Putin’s intentions. And it is the understanding of these prophecies that has enabled the Trumpet to powerfully and consistently warn for over two decades of his true motives.

In his booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ Mr. Flurry thoroughly explains these prophecies. Request your free copy.