OAN Staff Blake Wolf
10:04 AM – Thursday, August 21, 2025
President Donald Trump has urged Ukraine to go on the offensive against Russia, arguing that Kyiv cannot prevail without striking inside Russian territory. This is a sharp departure from his earlier calls for restraint during the ongoing peace negotiations.
“It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invaders country. It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia,” Trump wrote in a Thursday Truth Social post.
“Crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine FIGHT BACK, only DEFEND. How did that work out? Regardless, this is a war that would have NEVER happened if I were President – ZERO CHANCE. Interesting times ahead!!!” President Trump added.
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The White House followed up with a dramatic black-and-white image of President Trump pointing at Vladimir Putin — visually evoking the famed 1959 “Kitchen Debate” photograph depicting then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a moment long symbolic of American resolve in the face of Soviet pressure.
President Trump’s more confrontational recent stance against Russia follows Moscow’s unwillingness to immediately schedule a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the summit between President Trump and Putin in Alaska.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, responded to Ukraine and Western demands at the White House summit on Monday, which included the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine for “security guarantees.”
Lavrov argued that the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine amounts to “foreign intervention,” which represents a “non-starter” for Russia.
Lavrov went on to emphasize that Russia would like to return to the peace deal framework previously discussed in Istanbul in 2022, which proposed that Russia would annex Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, in addition to a ban on Ukraine joining NATO and the EU, while also limiting Ukraine’s military size and equipment.
“We support the principles and security guarantees that were agreed … in April 2022,” Lavrov stated. “Anything else … is of course an absolutely futile undertaking.”
Ukraine’s demand for Western security guarantees, including boots on the ground from European allies, represents a major barrier to peace, as Russia argues that Ukraine was invaded in part due to its flirtation with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership.
The Kremlin also suggested that meetings between Putin and Zelensky are far from imminent, as Putin has not agreed to meet as of late.
Nevertheless, the White House issued a hopeful message on Wednesday, stating: “President Trump and his national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials towards a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine recently struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov Oblast in an overnight drone strike. The nation has now begun keying in on attacking Russian oil infrastructure, which funds the war, prompting wholesale gasoline prices in Russia to skyrocket.
Russia responded to the oil refinery attack by launching 574 drones and 40 missiles in one of the heaviest bombardments in recent weeks, according to Ukrainian officials.
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