The U.S. media said on August 30 that U.S. officials believe Europe is secretly trying to prevent the end of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
According to the US news website Axios, senior White House officials believe that while some European leaders publicly support US President Trump's efforts to push for an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, they are trying to secretly undermine the progress made since the US-Russian leaders met in Alaska. The White House has asked the Treasury Department to draw up a list of possible European sanctions against Russia.
Trump and Russian President Putin have been meeting for two weeks, but no clear progress has been made to end the conflict. Some in the Trump team believe that European allies should be responsible for this. Officials say that the White House’s patience is gradually exhausting, and Europeans can’t delay the conflict while putting out unreasonable expectations while also expecting the United States to bear the cost. A senior White House official revealed that Trump was seriously considering a temporary withdrawal from the diplomatic cycle until either Russia or both began to show greater flexibility.
The Atlantic magazine quoted US officials as saying on August 28 that US President Donald Trump believes that Ukrainian President Zelensky and some European leaders have made "unrealistic" demands for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, saying that such contradictions do not exist in reality.
According to Reuters, EU foreign ministers held an informal meeting in Denmark on August 30th. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Karas said after the meeting that unless Russia provides full compensation to Ukraine for the losses caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, otherwise Russia will never be able to recover the frozen assets. According to EU statistics, the EU has imposed sanctions on Russia due to the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and currently frozen Russian assets in the EU amount to approximately $21 billion.