Trump taps retired General Keith Kellogg as US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia

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US President-elect Donald Trump named retired General Keith Kellogg as Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, a position which will have a key role in the incoming administration’s effort to end the war in Ukraine.

Kellogg “was with me right from the beginning!” Trump said in a statement. “Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”

Kellogg previously served as chief of staff on the National Security Council and as former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser during Trump’s first term in office.

“Thank god,” one European official told Semafor. “Not the worst option at all.” Other reported frontrunners for the role, including ex-intelligence chief Ric Grenell, were widely seen as more skeptical of giving any further aid to Ukraine.

Kellogg has previously argued that Washington should arm Ukraine on the condition that Kyiv enter peace talks with Russia. Writing in a policy paper alongside another former Trump official, Fred Fleitz, they argued that the US should put Ukrainian NATO membership on hold indefinitely in exchange for a “comprehensive and verifiable deal with security guarantees.”

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The proposal said that Ukraine should commit to winning back the territory occupied by Russia by diplomatic means rather than force, and that the US should give more aid to Ukraine if Russia declines to negotiate. Ukraine’s reconstruction could be funded by placing levies on Russian energy sales, the two proposed.

It is unclear to what extent Kellogg’s plan will form a blueprint for Trump’s Ukraine policy, but the president-elect reportedly reacted positively to the strategy when briefed on it.