Putin visits center for nuclear weapons research day after Trump says Ukraine can't win without striking Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the closed city of Sarov, which houses Russia's Federal Nuclear Center, on Aug. 22, the Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti reported.
The visit comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump wrote a social media post saying Ukraine had "no chance of winning" if not permitted to attack Russia and criticizing former U.S. President Joe Biden for not letting Kyiv "fight back, only defend."
Putin arrived in Sarov, a closed city in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, to visit representatives from the nation's main nuclear weapons research facility. He was joined in Sarov by Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, along with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Rosatom Chief Alexey Likhachev, Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Kiriyenko, and Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin.
According to RIA Novosti, Putin's visit involved meetings with nuclear industry employees and laying flowers at a monument to the chief designer of the first Soviet atomic bomb.
Sarov houses the Russian Federal Nuclear Center and Atomic Bomb museum. Access to the city is heavily restricted, even to Russians. The town is surrounded by fences and patrolled by the Russian military.
The Russian Federal Nuclear Center, also known as the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF), manages key decisions related to the development, production, storage, and use of nuclear weapons. It is run by the state nuclear energy company Rosatom.
The visit comes a week after Putin met Trump for their first in-person summit since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The leaders met in Anchorage, Alaska on Aug. 15, after which Trump announced a series of planned high-level peace talks.
Days after the Alaska Summit, Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and several top European leaders at the White House. The next step, he said, would be a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.
Trump said on Aug. 21 that it would be clear "within two weeks" whether Russia was serious about making peace. He then took to his social media platform Truth Social to blame Biden for undermining Ukraine's ability to fight back against Russia.
"It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader's country. It's like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense," he wrote.
"There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia. Crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine fight, only defend. How did that work out? ... Interesting times ahead!"
While Putin praised Trump's peacekeeping efforts after the Alaska meeting, the Kremlin has since shown little interest in furthering the peace process. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Aug. 22 that no meeting is planned between Zelensky and Putin.
Russia has continued to launch large-scale aerial strikes against Ukraine and has refused to implement a ceasefire during peace negotiations.
