Reuters: Trump administration disbands group focused on pressuring Russia

The Trump administration in recent weeks has closed an interagency working group created to develop strategies to pressure Russia to speed up peace talks with Ukraine, according to three U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters.

The effort, which was established earlier in the spring, lost steam in May as it became increasingly clear to participants that U.S. President Donald Trump was not interested in adopting a more confrontational stance toward Moscow, said the officials.

The final blow for the working group came roughly three weeks ago, when most members of the White House National Security Council - including the entire team dealing directly with the Ukraine war - were dismissed as part of a broad purge, according to the three officials.

"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 death of the working group, the existence of which has not been previously reported, is likely to deepen European allies' concerns over Trump's at-times conciliatory tone toward Russia and his reluctance to express full-throated support for Ukraine ahead of a pivotal summit of NATO allies later this month.

On the first day of a meeting of Group of Seven leaders in Canada on June 16, the Republican president said removing Russia from the former Group of Eight over a decade ago had been a mistake.

Some Trump allies, including Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, have publicly advocated for an expansive new round of sanctions directed at Russia, citing Moscow's effective rejection of U.S. ceasefire proposals and the Kremlin's continual attacks on civilian targets as proof of Putin's recalcitrance. In April, he proposed a bill that would impose secondary sanctions on Russia's partners and 500% tariffs on goods from countries that buy its resources.

The group considered various options for influencing Russia, including economic measures to restrict Moscow's trade with Eastern European and Asian countries, as well as possible covert operations. One of the areas discussed was pressure on Kazakhstan.

By Khagan Isayev