The administration of U.S. leader Donald Trump apparently plans to step up in the peaceful negotiations on solving the Donbas conflict, writes Washington Post.
‘In their Oval Office meeting in March, President Trump told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Ukraine crisis was Europe’s responsibility and that the United States wouldn’t get heavily involved, according to two officials briefed on the discussion. Only two months later, the Trump administration is reversing course and planning to re-engage on Ukraine in a significant way,’ reads the article.
Sources in the U.S. government say Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on the issue to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Tillerson is said to seek assistance of special envoy at the Department of the State, so that the U.S. would be able to participate in solving the crisis in Ukraine more actively.
‘That new envoy would reinvigorate the U.S.-Russian diplomatic channel with Vladislav Surkov, known as the Kremlin’s “gray cardinal.” President Barack Obama’s assistant secretary of state for Europe, Victoria Nuland, was ultimately unable to make progress through that channel last year,’ the U.S. outlet wrote.