Split in Trump's team? Rubio and Kellogg call for caution with Putin, others for dialogue
Photo: Marco Rubio (Getty Images)
Several advisers to US President Donald Trump have urged him to be more cautious with Moscow's claims about a ceasefire, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Several senior Trump aides are advising him to be more skeptical of Moscow's push for peace with Ukraine. They say Russia's Vladimir Putin has so far shown no real interest in ending the fighting.
According to the WSJ, the group, which includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, has advised Trump to be more cautious in his dealings with Putin. In particular, he should take a tougher line on Moscow's demands for territorial concessions from Kyiv.
The source said that Trump still sided with envoy Steve Witkoff, who believed that Putin wanted peace after meeting with him twice in Moscow.
The article says that Russia has rejected Trump's demand for a ceasefire. Moreover, Moscow has slowly backed away from its desire for a partial cessation of hostilities, bidding time, insisting on what has been achieved on the battlefield, and seeking maximum concessions in negotiations.
The Wall Street Journal writes that Trump hoped to partially halt the war in Ukraine to remove a serious obstacle to a broader rapprochement with the Kremlin. It added that he had at times appeared impatient with Putin but had not followed through on his threat to impose new sanctions on Russian oil exports.
Even Trump’s advisers, who advocate a tougher approach to Moscow, support his goal of ending the three-year war.
The article said that a Russian ballistic missile attack on Sunday, which killed 34 civilians and wounded 100 more in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, had highlighted divisions among Trump’s senior advisers.
Russian strikes on Ukraine
On Friday, April 4, the Russians launched a ballistic missile attack on the city of Kryvyi Rih. The explosion occurred near a playground. The Russian attack killed 19 people, including 9 children.
On April 13, a double ballistic missile attack was launched on the city of Sumy. At least 35 people are known to have been killed there, including an 11-year-old and 17-year-old children.
Trump later called the Russian strike on Sumy a "mistake."
On the eve of this strike, the US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff was in Russia and met with Putin. Moreover, Reuters wrote that Witkoff told Trump that the fastest step towards peace in Ukraine was to give Russia ownership of four eastern Ukrainian regions.
Trump later wrote on Truth Social that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and former US President Joe Biden "did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin." And a few hours later, Trump said he believed that three people are to blame for Russia’s war against Ukraine. This time, he also blamed Putin.
