Trump envoy calls for Russia-US ‘reset’

Diplomatically isolating Moscow is no longer a viable strategy, Keith Kellogg has said

US President Donald Trump plans to “reset relations with Russia” and withdraw from an “endless proxy war” in Ukraine, his special envoy Keith Kellogg has said.

In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday Kellog claimed “the need to reset relations with Russia, to secure Americans’ vital national interests and ultimately to stop US entanglement in an endless proxy war” define Trump’s approach.

“The continued isolation” of Russia “is no longer a viable or a sustainable strategy and is certainly not a responsible approach diplomatically,” the envoy added.

Instead, Kellog said, Trump will use “sticks and carrots on both sides” to bring Kiev and Moscow to the negotiating table. The administration will “aggressively” apply leverage, such as “the seizing of frozen Russian sovereign assets to rebuild and rearm Ukraine.”

Trump halted the flow of billions of dollars of US military aid to Ukraine this week, in an attempt to force Kiev to change its position to talks.

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Ukraine conflict a Russia-US ‘proxy war’ – Rubio

Following a disastrous meeting in Washington with Zelensky last week Trump accused the Ukrainian leader of attempting to secure US support for a protracted conflict with Russia, rather than seeking peace.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed on Wednesday that Zelensky has been “sabotaging and undermining” Washington’s efforts. “It’s a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia – and it needs to come to an end,” the top diplomat said.

Relations between Russia and the US are warming. High-level talks in Riyadh last month marked the superpowers’ first diplomatic engagement since Washington broke off contact in 2022, after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

READ MORE: US ‘destroying world order’ – ex-Ukrainian army chief

In 2009, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also famously attempted to reset US-Russia relations, in a failed initiative perhaps best summarised by Washington’s use of the Russian word for ‘overload’ on a symbolic red button she presented to Russian foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.