President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he will nominate retired General Keith Kellogg as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
“Keith has led a distinguished military and business career, including serving in highly sensitive national security roles in my first administration. He has been with me from the beginning! Together, we power through. Will make peace, and America, and the world safe again!” Trump said in a statement announcing his decision.
During Trump’s first administration, Kellogg served as chief of staff and executive secretary of the National Security Council. He previously served in the Army for over 35 years.
Kellogg co-authored a policy paper in April, obtained by NBC News, outlining how he wants to end the war in Ukraine, including with Russia. This includes potentially conditioning US military aid to Kiev to participate in peace talks.
In the paper proposing a cease-fire, Kellogg and co-author Fred Flatz wrote, “In particular, it would mean a formal U.S. policy to seek a cease-fire and negotiated solution to the conflict in Ukraine. Ukraine will need to participate in peace talks with Russia to ensure that Russia does not advance and re-attack after a cease-fire or peace agreement.
In the paper, both authors appeared to acknowledge that the war was unlikely to end while Russian President Vladimir Putin was still leading his country.
“Ukraine will not be asked to give up its goal of regaining all of its territory, but it will agree to use diplomacy, not force, with the understanding that it will have a diplomatic future.” Progress will be needed that probably won’t happen before Putin leaves power.” Kellogg. And Flatts wrote.
Both also explained that it would be difficult for Ukraine to accept a peace deal “that doesn’t give them all their territory back or, at least for now, blame Russia for the carnage in Ukraine.” “
Asked if he endorsed Kellogg’s position paper, the president-elect told NBC News, “I’m the only one who can stop the war. It should never have started in the first place.” He added that European countries should provide more aid.
Trump repeatedly promised to end the war during the campaign, but he did not offer many specifics about how he would do it. Meeting With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September“We’re going to work a lot with both sides to try to resolve it and work it out,” Trump told reporters.
“It has to end. It has to end at some point. He’s been through hell. His country has been through hell,” he added.
At an earlier campaign event in Georgia, Trump complained about U.S. aid to Ukraine, saying, “Every time Zelensky comes to America, he leaves with $100 billion. I think he’s the best person on earth.” But we’re stuck in that war—I’ll negotiate it until I’m president.”
Trump and Zelensky have a complicated relationship. A July 2019 phone call Trump’s first impeachment took place between the two leaders. Trump was blamed. Aid to Ukraine was withheld in an effort to pressure Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. He denied wrongdoing and was later acquitted in the Republican-led Senate.
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has also spoken out against aid to Ukraine, as has Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“I know what Donald Trump was thinking during that meeting. He was thinking, I want to turn this guy around and grab him by the legs and take all the money out of his pocket and hope that 208 It’s going to add up to billions of dollars … that’s what the Democrats gave him, and we need to bring that money home,” Kennedy said at a Trump rally in September.
During an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press, Venice also expressed support for holding peace talks. “I think it’s important that if we’re ever going to end the war in Ukraine, fundamentally, at some level, we have to have some kind of dialogue between Ukraine, between Russia, between our NATO allies in Europe. I have to be engaged,” he said.
Vance had long criticized US aid to Ukraine;writing in an op-ed earlier this year, “There is clearly no good reason why aid from the United States is needed. Europe is made up of many great nations with productive economies.
And that told a podcast In February 2022, just before Russia invaded Ukraine, “I don’t care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”