WASHINGTON, May 29. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to restart peace negotiations with Russia to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, The Washington Post newspaper wrote on Monday, citing US officials and outside experts.

The effort is led by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has reportedly discussed this issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "There is also a robust interagency process to chart the new strategy, and the office of Vice President Pence is also involved," the report says.

"Although still in its early stages, Tillerson’s idea is to restart a version of the peace negotiations that the Obama administration was engaged in last year, hoping that new circumstances and personalities might produce better results," the paper writes.

Tillerson is looking to appoint a special envoy at the State Department "to manage and lead the new Ukraine effort." The new envoy would reinvigorate the US-Russian diplomatic channel with Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov. President Barack Obama’s assistant secretary of state for Europe, Victoria Nuland, "was ultimately unable to make progress through that channel last year," the report says.

However, the current scandal, linked to the investigation into Russia’s alleged interference into the US presidential elections in 2016, complicates everything, the paper writes. Congress insists on applying more sanctions to Russia rather than lifting them.