Trump wants to reboot relations with Russia, his special Ukraine envoy says
Pravda Ukraine
Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy on Ukraine and Russia, has stated that the Trump administration is taking a new approach towards Russia, which involves resetting relations between the two nations.
Source: Kellogg in a report on ways to end the war in Ukraine at a discussion of the Council on Foreign Relations, as reported by European Pravda
Quote from Kellogg: “There is also a broader strategy at play in President Trump’s approach to this war. [It lies in] the realisation that the United States needs to reset its relations with Russia… Continued isolation and lack of engagement with the Russians as the war in Ukraine continued is no longer a viable or sustainable strategy,” he said.
According to Kellogg, the shift in the US approach is due to the human cost of the war, the need to reset relations with Russia to safeguard US national interests, and the desire to prevent the US from becoming entangled in an “endless proxy war”.
“So what you’re seeing now and what you’re witnessing are urgent efforts by the Trump administration to bring both sides to the table in order to get to a peace settlement,” Kellogg said, adding that the administration will put pressure on both sides to do so.
Discussing pressure on Russia, Kellogg referenced the sanctions currently imposed on Russia’s shadow fleet involved in transporting Russian oil.
He also mentioned that seizing Russia’s frozen assets to aid Ukraine’s recovery and applying maximum pressure on Russian energy are among the strategies Trump could use to intensify pressure on Russia.
Background:
- Kellogg also believes that a spat between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House last week occurred because the two leaders have “objectives that were clearly not in alignment with one another” regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war.
- On 4 March, it was reported that Trump had decided to suspend all military aid to Ukraine, including supplies that were already en route.
- On 5 March, it was revealed that intelligence sharing with Ukraine, including information on Russian missile launches, had ceased.
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