Several advisers and members of the US President Donald Trumpʼs team are trying to change his position on Russia towards a tougher one.
This is reported by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing sources.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Representative for Ukraine Keith Kellogg are urging Trump to be more skeptical. They are convinced that Russia has not shown any interest in a real end to the war in Ukraine. Therefore, they are asking the US President to be more cautious in his relations with Moscow. They gave this recommendation during the discussion of possible sanctions against Russia.
But US special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who has flown to Moscow twice for talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, is confident that Russia is ready for peace. And Trump, according to the WSJ, shares his opinion.
Russia’s missile attack on Sumy on April 13, which killed 35 Ukrainians and wounded more than 100, highlighted divisions among Trump’s senior team. Keith Kellogg said the Russian attack “crossed every line of decency”, while Rubio called it “horrific” and “tragic”.
Meanwhile, Trump, although he called the attack "horrible," believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the 46th US President Joe Biden, as well as Putin, are to blame for the war.
- The US is negotiating with Russia and Ukraine to end the war, but a true ceasefire is still in sight. Kyiv has already agreed to halt hostilities in the Black Sea and not attack Russian energy facilities during a 30-day truce. Moscow, in return, has only promised not to attack energy facilities and said it would implement agreements on the Black Sea only after Western sanctions are lifted.
- The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that Russia is violating the partial ceasefire and warned the Russians against dragging out the peace process. The US President Donald Trump had previously promised to impose tough sanctions against Russia if it did so, but has not yet done so.
- Trump rarely criticizes Putin. Earlier, in an interview with NBC News, Donald Trump said that he was "very angry" and "furious" with Putin when he questioned the authority of Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump believes that such statements "do not lead in the right direction".
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.