Trump ready to double down on Russian sanctions, US envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg says

NY Post ^ | 2/6/2024 | Caitlin Doornbos

[marcusmaximus]

President Trump is prepared to double down on US sanctions for Russia to bring about an end to its war on Ukraine, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, his special envoy to the conflict, exclusively told The Post this week — but he knows both Kyiv and Moscow will have to make concessions to end the “industrial-sized” killing in Europe’s largest country.

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 US sanctions themselves — such as those targeting Russia’s lucrative energy sector — are nominally twice as high, but there is still room to ratchet them up.

“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.

-snip-

Last Thursday, Trump gathered his “whole confirmed team” of advisers and cabinet members focused on national security — from Vice President JD Vance to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — in the Oval Office, where Kellogg said they discussed how to use all elements of national power to end the war.

“Solving the Russia-Ukraine war is really all hands on deck for the entire administration, so a whole-of-government approach,” the general said. “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.”

-snip-

While the president this week has floated possible deal-making with Ukraine over access to its rare earth elements critical to US national security, Kellogg said the president first “wants to stop the killing — just stop it — and then you go from there” on future negotiations.

[Petrosius]

I do not know why anyone would be surprised by this. This is what Trump has been saying all along but there are some who have refused to hear it. In their wishful thinking they have convinced themselves that Trump is was just going to cut bait and leave Ukraine to the tender mercies of Russia. They are going to be disappointed. Trump may have no great love for Ukraine but such an action would not be beneficial to the US. And now that Trump has become aware of the rare earth minerals in Donbas his calculations may have drastically changed.

[Kazan]

There is nothing left to sanction that is coming from Russia except essentials like fertilizer.

And, there is no chance Trump is going to inflict inflation on Americans over Ukraine.