Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general nominated by Donald Trump as Ukraine’s special peace envoy, has previously said that US policy to end the war should include demanding a ceasefire and negotiating a settlement.
Kellogg, 80, who served as national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence during the previous GOP administration, will be a key figure in ending the war that president-elect Trump has always said he can solve quickly. Newsweek has contacted the Trump team for comment.
In May, Kellogg released a plan he co-authored with former Trump aide Fred Fleitz, which called for military aid to Ukraine to end unless it agreed to peace negotiations with Russia. He said the conflict should be frozen on the current front line, which would now leave Russia in control of about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
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The document explains how there should be an “official US policy to seek a ceasefire and negotiated settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.”
He said the U.S. would continue to provide arms and aid to Ukraine to ensure that Moscow “does not advance and will not attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement.” Further US military aid to Kyiv would “require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia.”
The document says, in order to bring Vladimir Putin to the table, the US and its NATO partners must suspend Ukraine’s membership in the alliance in exchange for security guarantees.
Kyiv must also realize that it will take a long time to recapture all the territories it controls, and that partial sanctions on Russia could push the Kremlin towards peace.
It is unclear whether Trump will use the plan written by Kellogg to end the war, which the president-elect has said he can do before he is inaugurated on January 20, 2025.
“Donald Trump promised to fix the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, but it’s impossible, and he doesn’t believe it either,” said Cédomir Nestorovic, professor of geopolitics at ESSEC Business School. Newsweek.
“On the other hand, they want to act quickly, and for this, they will push the exchange of territories against peace,” said Nestorovic, although “no one knows what territory and what kind of peace is needed.”
“As far as Putin is concerned, he also wants to act quickly. The deadline of January 20 pleases him and Trump, because the American president can start his term without the Ukraine conflict,” Nestorovic said.
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At the start of Putin’s full-scale invasion, Kellogg disparages the Russian army as “the Vermont National Guard with nuclear weapons. We think these guys are really 10 feet tall.’ He’s not around 5.5,” he said Fox & Friends in March 2022.
In a November 2023 paper for the America First Policy Institute, which he chairs, Kellogg addressed the Biden administration’s additional attacks on Ukraine and its failure to create a final state. He said he had “exploded America in an endless war.”
Kellogg added that Washington “needs to abandon” the idea that the war is a zero-sum game in which Putin is eliminated and Russia’s total defeat is an acceptable outcome.
During an interview with Voice of America in July 2024, Kellogg reiterated allegations that the Biden administration and the West had been too cautious to help Ukraine.
“Does the United States give support to Ukraine for F-16? No. Do we provide long-range fires in advance for the Ukrainians to shoot at Russia? No. Do we give permission to shoot deep into Russia? No,” Kellogg said. .
“I blame this administration and the West for not supporting Ukraine when it should,” he said, adding “you have to give (Russia) a reason to negotiate.”
Most recently, Kellogg told Fox News on November 22 that Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range ATACMS on Russian territory could help the incoming president.
“He’s really giving President Trump some leverage, because now he can go backwards, he can go left, he can go right, he can do anything,” Kellogg said.
