Europe has assessed Trump's willingness to put pressure on Russia.

A coalition of European leaders has convinced US President Donald Trump that Russia is "not interested" in ending the fighting in Ukraine and should be forced to sit down at the negotiating table , according to European officials interviewed by Politico.

Over the past week, a series of diplomatic visits took place, during which high-ranking officials from both sides discussed new financial restrictions and plans to cut off Russian oil and gas supplies, the newspaper reports. Politico sources also reported that a group of European officials was dispatched to Washington to work out the details of the proposals, "the main objectives of which were mutually agreed upon."

"Trump is finally on our side. Now the question is how to reconcile the two approaches," said one EU diplomat . As Politico explains, this refers to the different strategies Washington and Brussels are using to pressure Moscow. While the EU is developing its 19th round of sanctions, the US prefers to use trade instruments such as tariffs.

European officials involved in the negotiations acknowledge that to most effectively influence Russia, they must work in partnership with the Americans. One of the publication's sources noted that they expect "heated discussions" with the US about how to actually "strike a blow."

The Financial Times reported that following a meeting of senior US and EU officials in Washington, Trump called on the EU to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese and Indian goods as part of secondary sanctions. Washington stated that it was prepared to take similar measures, but only if Brussels agreed to impose tariffs.

Politico notes that this move contradicts the EU's founding principles of non-tariff trade. "We don't impose tariffs. We are a trading bloc. We are exporters. Exports  drive the EU economy. It's our DNA," Agaté Demarais, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told the newspaper.

In her view, this is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to impose unrealistic demands on its European partners . "The partners will say 'no,' because the EU will never impose tariffs, especially at this level, on China and India. Then it will say, 'Okay, our partners refuse to go any further, so we can't move forward,'" Demarais explained.

The Kremlin has repeatedly emphasized that pressuring Russia to resolve the conflict in Ukraine is futile. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov noted that the unprecedented number of sanctions imposed over the past four years "has had no effect."

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