US President Donald Trump has this week declared “tremendous progress” toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. This upbeat assessment comes following a sudden flurry of diplomatic activity sparked by a 28-point peace proposal that caught almost everyone by surprise, marking a new twist in Trump’s longstanding efforts to broker a peace deal.
Not everyone shares the US leader’s optimistic outlook. Skeptics note that while the United States and Ukraine have now reportedly agreed upon the broad outlines of a future settlement, there is very little to suggest that Russia is similarly interested in peace. On the contrary, the Kremlin has responded to Trump’s latest overtures by ruling out any major concessions and signaling that Moscow remains firmly focused on the maximalist goals of the invasion.
As talks between American, Ukrainian, and Russian officials continue, Russian President Vladimir Putin has underlined his true intentions by issuing a presidential decreecalling for an escalation in efforts to eradicate all traces of Ukrainian identity from the approximately 20 percent of Ukraine currently under Kremlin control.
The decree, entitled “Russian National Policy Until 2036,” was published on November 25 and is set to come into force in January 2026, Reuters reports. It calls on the Russian authorities in occupied Ukraine to “adopt additional measures to strengthen overall Russian civic identity.” The policy document also praises the invasion of Ukraine for “creating conditions for restoring the unity of the historical territories of the Russian state.”
This bureaucratic language is an attempt to sanitize the Kremlin’s ongoing campaign to erase Ukrainian national identity. Throughout Russian-occupied regions in the south and east of the country, Moscow has instituted a reign of terror against the civilian population while systematically targeting the symbols of Ukrainian statehood, language, heritage, and culture.
Voice of Ukraine 