Trump ready to double sanctions against Russia, his special Ukraine envoy says
Pravda Ukraine
US President Donald Trump is ready to double sanctions to compel Russia to end its war against Ukraine, his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, has said.
Source: The New York Post, citing Kellogg in an interview
Details: Kellogg mentioned that sanctions against Russia are currently “only about a three” on a ten-point scale of “how painful the economic pressure can be”.
He pointed out that US sanctions, such as those targeting Russia’s lucrative energy sector, are technically at twice that level, though there is still potential to increase their intensity.
Quote from Kellogg: “You could really increase the sanctions – especially the latest sanctions [targeting oil production and exports]. It’s opened the aperture way high to do something. And if there’s anybody who understands leverage, it’s President Donald J. Trump, and you can see that with what he’s recently done [in other foreign problem-solving].”
Details: He shared that last Thursday, Trump assembled his “whole confirmed team” of advisers and cabinet members in the Oval Office, from Vice President J.D. Vance to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. They discussed strategies to utilise every tool of national power to bring the war to an end.
“Solving the Russia-Ukraine war is really all hands on deck for the entire administration, so a whole-of-government approach. We got the national security team talking about it – the president, vice president, national security adviser, secretaries of State [and] Treasury, National Security Council, working all together,” Kellogg said.
He added that Ukraine must maintain military pressure on Russia until negotiations commence and criticised former President Joe Biden’s approach of committing to provide Ukraine with aid “as long as it takes, as much as it takes” without ramping up pressure on other aspects of national power.
“That is not a strategy, it’s a bumper sticker,” Kellogg said, adding that Trump is acting differently.
He said Trump is focused on taking a “holistic approach” to ending the brutal fighting.
Kellogg also mentioned that although the US president discussed the possibility of an arms deal with Ukraine in exchange for its minerals this week, he still “wants to stop the killing – just stop it – and then you go from there” regarding future negotiations.
“I think we have some opportunities, and fortunately, I’m working for the master deals. He wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’. I wouldn’t put anything past him,” Kellogg said.
According to Kellogg, Russia has shown no interest in preventing heavy losses among its own forces, which is why it is crucial to halt the violence before delving into the details of a peaceful settlement.
“For Russia, this is kind of in their DNA in military operations – basically, you’re in an attrition fight. If you look at history, you’d never want to get into an attrition fight with the Russians, because that’s how they fight. They’re used to it. I mean, this is a country that was willing to lose – and did – 700,000 in the Battle of Stalingrad in six months, and they didn’t blink an eye,” Kellogg said.
He emphasised that this is why the pressure cannot be solely military.
“You have to put economic pressure, you have to put diplomatic pressure, some type of military pressures and levers that you’re going to use underneath those to make sure [this goes] where we want it to go,” Trump’s special Ukraine envoy explained.
However, he reiterated that the war will not end without negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
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