When US President Donald Trump’s envoys sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin this month, the Russian leader appeared confident in his position.
Putin said Russian forces would be able, within months, to finally take control of the entire Donbas region of Ukraine, and that Russia was preparing to intensify its strikes on Ukraine’s electricity grid, paving the way for a harsh winter for the country. But one of the envoys, Jared Kushner, tried to object.
“With all due respect, you told us exactly the same thing a year ago. What are the chances that we come back here another year from now and you tell us the same thing again? Maybe we shouldn’t waste another year?” Kushner told the Russian president, according to The New York Times.
A person familiar with the talks and a US official described the exchange, which reflects the impasse facing Trump’s efforts, ongoing for more than 18 months, to end the war in Ukraine.
This week, Congress approved an unprecedented sanctions bill targeting Russia’s energy sector, in another attempt to make Russia “pay the price” for the war in Ukraine and pressure Putin to make concessions.
But as the bill heads to Trump’s desk, the US administration is also moving in the opposite direction, by offering Russia economic benefits that it hopes will encourage Putin to consider ending the war.
Among the new incentives, the White House is currently considering striking trade deals with Russia before it stops fighting in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the talks.
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations candidly, said that reaching deals with Russia before the war ends was possible because it would demonstrate that the United States is serious about resetting its relations with Moscow.
The approach represents a shift from Trump’s pledge last year that trade deals with Russia would come “only after a settlement of the war.”
It also indicates that Trump’s envoys tasked with ending the war, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are exploring new ways to entice Russia to stop the fighting, after it became clear that Ukraine would not withdraw from areas of its territory that Putin insists Russia must control before the war ends.
This approach contrasts with the path advocated by members of both the Republican and Democratic parties in Congress, as well as Kyiv’s European allies and Ukraine itself, which calls for increasing economic and military pressure on Putin to push him to make concessions.
Republican Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, one of the leading supporters of the sanctions bill, said after the legislation passed by a bipartisan vote of 262 to 159: “This bill will cripple Russia’s war machine and finally bring Putin to the negotiating table.”
Trump has expressed his willingness to sign the bill, which Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was one of its leading supporters until his death last July.
The law allows the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that purchase large quantities of Russian oil or gas. It also imposes sanctions on Russian officials, businesspeople, and financial institutions.
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