In recent weeks, the Trump administration suspended the work of an interagency working group created to develop strategies to pressure Russia to expedite peace talks with Ukraine, writes Reuters citing three American officials.
According to the agency's interlocutors, this initiative, launched in the spring, lost momentum in May when participants realized that U.S. President Donald Trump was not interested in a more confrontational stance towards Moscow.
Despite promising during his election campaign to end the war in Ukraine on the very first day of his presidency, in recent months, he has become increasingly frustrated that his efforts are yielding no results. He also stated that the United States might altogether abandon attempts to mediate in the peace process.
The disbandment of the working group, whose existence had not been previously reported, is likely to exacerbate European allies' concerns about Trump's sometimes conciliatory tone towards Russia and his reluctance to fully support Ukraine. On the first day of the G7 leaders' meeting in Canada on Monday, the U.S. President stated that excluding Russia from the former G8 over ten years ago was a mistake and one of the reasons the war began.
According to officials, the final blow to the working group was dealt about three weeks ago when most members of the White House National Security Council, including the entire team directly dealing with the war in Ukraine, were dismissed. The group was organized and coordinated by senior staff of the U.S. National Security Service, with representatives from the State Department, Treasury, Pentagon, and intelligence participating in its work. However, as Reuters emphasizes, it is unknown whether Donald Trump was aware of the group's creation and its disbandment.
The end of this group's work followed the suspension in March of some U.S. national security agencies' efforts to counter Russian subversions and disinformation operations. Some of Trump's allies, including Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, have publicly advocated for a new round of expanded sanctions against Russia, citing Moscow's de facto rejection of U.S. ceasefire proposals and ongoing Kremlin attacks on civilian targets.
On the eve, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported that American negotiators canceled a meeting with the Russian delegation as part of consultations on normalizing diplomatic relations.