Peace momentum ‘lost’ after Putin-Trump summit – DW – 10/08/2025

Russia’s parliament has approved the move to withdraw from the Plutonium Management and Disposal Agreement (PMDA).

A note on the legislation said, “The United States has taken a number of new anti-Russian steps that fundamentally alter the strategic balance that existed at the time of the agreement and pose additional threats to strategic stability.”

This historic agreement with the United States was intended to reduce the vast stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium left over from thousands of Cold War nuclear weapons.

Signed in 2000, the PMDA obliges both the United States and Russia to dispose of at least 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. According to US officials, this amount would be enough for 17,000 nuclear weapons.

The agreement took effect in 2011. However, in 2016, Russia suspended its participation in the agreement citing several reasons, including US sanctions, NATO expansion, and changes to the United States’ plutonium disposal process.

Russia and the United States are by far the world’s largest nuclear powers. Together, they control about 8,000 nuclear weapons – far less than the 73,000 at their peak in 1986.

The Ukrainian Parliament voted to extend the terms of local representatives for the duration of martial law.

A statement from Ukraine’s parliament, known as the Verkhovna Rada, said the proposal had the support of a clear two-thirds majority of lawmakers.

Mayors, city and municipal councilors and regional parliaments will therefore remain in office until elections are held after the end of the war with Russia.

According to the Constitution, Ukraine is scheduled to hold local elections on October 26, which will mark five years since the 2020 local elections.

However, following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, martial law was imposed in Ukraine, making elections impossible.

At least three people were killed and nine others injured in a Ukrainian missile strike in Russia’s western Belgorod region, according to a statement on Telegram from Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The small settlement of Maslova Pristan near the Ukrainian border was hit by rockets, with a social center partially destroyed in the attack, Gladkov said.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, 28 of which were over Belgorod.

As part of its defensive campaign against a full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine has been increasingly attacking targets inside Russian territory.

Ukraine’s largest electricity operator DTEK said Russian airstrikes caused serious damage to a thermal power plant in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, leaving parts of the region without power.

DTEK said that two employees were injured in the attack.

Train service around the city of Nizhyn in the Chernihiv region was also disrupted due to the attack on a freight train, according to officials.

Meanwhile, in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian strikes killed two people and wounded another.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 183 combat drones at Ukraine overnight, of which 154 were intercepted. According to the report, 22 attacks took place at 11 places.

A top Russian diplomat said the momentum to reach a peace deal in Ukraine had largely disappeared after the presidential summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, “Unfortunately, we must admit that the powerful momentum generated by Anchorage in favor of agreements has largely dissipated.”

In August, Putin and Trump met at an airbase in Anchorage, Alaska, but failed to reach an agreement to end the three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.

Since then, diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have failed. Both Moscow and Kiev have launched deadly attacks on each other’s territory, and Russia has advanced on the battlefield.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers the bloc must strengthen its security to prevent a “hybrid war” after a series of air incursions, cyber attacks and undersea cable damage.

He said it was time to call this campaign by its name and say that it is “hybrid warfare.”

Although he did not say that Russia was responsible for all the incidents, he said it was clear that Russia’s aim was to “sow division” in Europe.

Read more about how European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is urging responses to the dangers of hybrid warfare.

The head of the Russian parliament’s defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said Russia would react harshly if the United States supplied Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, the state RIA news agency reported.

“We know these missiles very well, how they fly, how to shoot them down,” RIA quoted him as saying. “We worked on them in Syria, so there’s nothing new.”

“The only people who supply them and those who use them will have problems,” Kartapolov said.

In a separate statement, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov urged Washington to “soberly” assess the situation surrounding the potential supply of Tomahawk missiles.

Ryabkov said any such decision would be a serious step that would result in a “qualitative” change in the situation.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said he wanted to know what Ukraine planned to do with Tomahawk missiles before agreeing to provide them, because he did not want to escalate a war between Russia and Ukraine. However, he said he had “kind of taken a decision” on the matter.

DW brings you the latest headlines from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues, a top Russian diplomat said the impetus to find a peace deal to end the fighting, which emerged after a presidential summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in August, has largely disappeared.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe should strengthen its defenses against “hybrid warfare” after a series of air incursions, cyber attacks and undersea cable damage.

Stay tuned for latest news and analysis.