Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia was excluded from peace talks because the Kremlin complained that he was “too close” to Kyiv, it has been reported.
In November, President Trump announced retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, 80, as one of the key players in ending the war.
But since Mr Trump returned to office in January, Gen Kellogg has been noticeably absent from talks between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.
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A Russian official, speaking anonymously, told NBC News that this is because they had requested Washington keep Kellogg off the talks.
“Kellogg is a former American general, too close to Ukraine,” the official said. “Not our kind of person, not of the calibre we are looking for.”
A US official in the Trump administration confirmed that Russia did not want Kellogg involved.
Kellogg, with over thirty years of military experience, is seen as one of Trump’s most hawkish figures on Russia. His supporters say he also has the best relationship with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he has known for a few years. He visited Zelensky in Kyiv last month.
When Trump announced a list of diplomats who would attend talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia, however, Kellogg was not on that list, nor was he included in the talks a month later with Ukraine.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, after helping broker a tentative ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, has emerged instead as the alternative key player in the talks with Putin. U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio and the White House national security adviser Mike Waltz have led the talks.
Witkoff has met with the Russian leader twice: first in February to set up the initial talks with Washington and then this week to discuss a 30-day proposal for a ceasefire agreed to by Ukraine.
Putin claims he supports the proposal but has also said the U.S. must address the “root causes” of the war before it can be agreed upon. These demands appear to be both propagandistic and impossible to satisfy. Putin has previously called for Ukraine’s effective disarmament and Kyiv’s abandonment of security guarantees vital to prevent future Russian aggression.
In a paper for the American First Policy Institute last year, Kellogg suggested the US should arm Ukraine and strengthen its defenses, ensuring that “Russia will make no further advances and will not attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement”.
In his relative absence, Trump suspended and then resumed military aid to and intelligence sharing with Ukraine following spats with Zelensky.
Kellogg’s allies say he has not been sidelined despite not attending the talks in Saudi Arabia. They claim he remains in contact with Mr Trump.
Russia’s foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova declined to answer a question last week about whether they had sidelined Kellogg. She claimed Russia’s diplomats had “great experience of dealing with different envoys”.
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