Trump ready to tighten sanctions on Russia, says special envoy

U.S. President Donald Trump is ready to tighten U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia to force Moscow to end its war against Ukraine.

This was stated in an interview with the New York Post newspaper by the U.S. President's Special Representative for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, CE Report quotes Ukrinform.

"You could really increase the sanctions — especially the latest sanctions [targeting oil production and exports,]” he said. “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.]” he said.

Sanctions enforcement on Russia are “only about a three” on a scale of one to 10 on how painful the economic pressure can be, Kellogg said.

The U.S. sanctions on Russia's lucrative energy sector are nominally twice as tough but there is still room for them to be tightened, the envoy noted.

He added that the entire U.S. administration is working on resolving the Russo-Ukrainian war.

"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.

At the same time, the U.S. president's special representative noted that Ukraine will need to continue military pressure on Russia in the run-up to the talks.

He also criticized the strategy pursued by former President Joe Biden, who pledged to assist Ukraine for “as long as it takes” without increasing pressure on other elements of the Russian government.

"This is not a strategy, it's a bumper sticker," he said.

According to Kellogg, applying pressure only through military means is not enough.

"You have to put economic pressure, you have to put diplomatic pressure," he added.