Trump administration disbands group tasked with developing strategies to pressure Russia – Reuters

The administration of US President Donald Trump has recently disbanded an interagency working group that had been tasked with developing strategies to pressure Russia in order to speed up peace talks with Ukraine.

Source: Reuters, citing three US officials, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Reuters’ sources said that the working group, which was set up in the spring, began to lose momentum in May when its members realised that Trump had no interest in taking a tougher stance towards Moscow.

According to Reuters, despite his campaign pledge to end the war in Ukraine on "day one" of his presidency, Trump has become increasingly frustrated in recent months by the lack of results and has started saying that the US could walk away from its mediating role in resolving the war altogether.

Against this backdrop, the sources said, the group's work had lost its meaning.

"It lost steam toward the end because the president wasn't there. Instead of doing more, maybe he wanted to do less," one of the officials said.

The existence of this working group had not been previously disclosed, Reuters noted.

The sources said the final blow to the group was dealt about three weeks ago, when the majority of members of the White House National Security Council – including the entire team dealing with the war in Ukraine – were dismissed as part of a sweeping purge.

The working group was set up and coordinated by senior National Security Council staff, but it included representatives from the Department of State, the Treasury Department, the Pentagon and intelligence agencies. One of its members was Andrew Peek, the National Security Council's senior director for European and Russian affairs, who was removed in May.

However, one official noted that Trump could decide to adopt a tougher stance on Russia at any moment regardless of the existence of this group, as it was only supposed to propose appropriate options for him.

According to the sources, the working group was formed in March or April when some of Trump's advisers began to have doubts about the Kremlin's willingness to compromise and Trump's rhetoric started to shift towards taking a less indulgent stance towards Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

Reuters notes that the group had discussed how the US could encourage or pressure the former Soviet republics, as well as countries in Eastern Europe and Asia, to restrict the supply of goods and energy to and from Russia.

It is not known whether Trump himself knew about the establishment of the group or its disbanding.

The officials declined to discuss the details of the group's work due to its sensitive nature but confirmed that at the time of its disbandment, it was still at a "brainstorming" stage. Its work was not related to the sanctions package in the US Senate.

Background:

• On 16 June, Trump said that Russia's exclusion from the G8 in 2014 had been a "big mistake" and that if it had not happened, there would be no war in Ukraine. The US president acknowledged, however, that Russia is unlikely to be invited back now because "too much water's gone over the dam".
• Notably, Trump left the G7 summit early, missing a planned meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying this was "for obvious reasons".

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