As Europe hesitates over whether to impose new sanctions on Russia, President Barack Obama is facing fierce pressure from both political parties at home to impose tough unilateral US penalties on the Russian economy.
The crash last week in eastern Ukraine of Flight MH17, killing all 298 passengers, had appeared to change the political momentum of the crisis, piling pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin because of his support for the separatists accused of firing the missile.
Yet without a clear decision from Brussels, Mr Obama finds himself increasingly caught between a strategy of trying to move in tandem with Europe and the mounting clamour for a decisive US response to the crash.