Official relations between the U.S. and Russia remain tense given the ambiguous statements by Trump administration officials about the sending of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for use in long-range strikes into Russia. Nevertheless, many Russian officials continue to hold out the olive branch that U.S. President Donald Trump will stay true to his stated intentions of making peace. TASS reports on an interview that Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov gave to VGTRK television network, in which he said: “If we are talking about settling the Ukrainian conflict, then the guiding star is the agreements that the two presidents reached in Anchorage,” on Aug. 15, 2025. Ushakov added that “[The Kiev regime] does not want [peace], so to advance these agreements, we must fight, we must convince people. Not everyone is convinced yet.” He also revealed that work between Russian and U.S. colleagues is continuing behind the scenes.