General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia, and State Secretary Marco Rubio were central to this effort.
Since February, Kellogg has been sidelined from direct negotiations between U.S. officials and Moscow in favor of Steve Witkoff, a lawyer and real estate investor with no prior diplomatic experience, who serves as the White House’s special envoy to the Middle East.
However, Kellogg has “been in the ascendancy lately”, a congressional aide told The Telegraph. “He and Rubio are driving the new approach.”
Kellogg has “taken on a bigger role in the past few weeks” while Witkoff has been bogged down in nuclear talks with Iran.
The tide began to shift in recent weeks, with much public attention around support for Ukraine focused on Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who traveled to Kyiv in May and introduced a sanctions bill described as a “sledgehammer” against Putin.
Another prime mover behind Trump’s policy shift is Rubio, a longtime foreign policy hawk who has called Putin a "gangster," a "thug," and a "war criminal." He became one of the president’s most influential advisers, allowing him to intervene when Putin escalated his devastating airstrikes in Ukraine in recent weeks.
“Many of us believed that the Russians will [always mess up],” a congressional aide said. “[Our tactic was to] get out of the way and let the Russians remind us why this is happening. They always go too far.”
Then there's the wild card: Melania, or "Agent Melania Trumpenko," as she has now been labeled by Ukrainians. During a recent press conference with the NATO chief Mark Rutte, Trump credited his wife with helping change his mind.
“I go home, I tell the first lady: I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. She said: ‘Really? Another city was just hit," Mr Trump told reporters on July 14, as he announced that the United States and NATO had reached an agreement to supply weapons to Kyiv.
The deal will provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in weapons. Trump also expressed strong dissatisfaction with Russia and threatened 100% tariffs if a peace agreement with Kyiv is not reached within 50 days.