Trump Appoints Loyal Envoy to Ukraine, Russia

Photo: Saul Loeb Archives Agence France-Presse 80-year-old General Keith Kellogg

Camille Camdessus – Agence France-Presse in Washington

Posted at 6:55 p.m.

• United States

Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he was appointing Gen. Keith Kellogg, who has called on kyiv to make several concessions, as his envoy to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

“He's been with me from the beginning! Together, we will achieve peace through strength and make America and the world safe again!” the president-elect wrote in a post on his Truth Social network.

A strong critic of the billions of dollars the United States has provided for Ukraine, Donald Trump promised to resolve the war between kyiv and Moscow before even taking the oath of office in January, without ever explaining how.

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Conditional Aid

The 80-year-old former general, who was appointed by the Republican to lead the mission, addressed the issue in a memo released in April.

“Any future U.S. military aid will require Ukraine to engage in peace talks with Russia,” he said.

He also called for “postponing Ukraine's NATO membership for an extended period” in order to “convince [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to participate in peace talks.”

Keith Kellogg, a little-known figure, briefly chaired the National Security Council, the White House's foreign policy office, during Donald Trump's first term. Trump.

In his memo, co-written with another conservative, the former general said that “the Ukrainian government and people will have a hard time accepting a negotiated peace that does not return all of their territory.”

“But as Donald Trump said […] in 2023, 'I want everyone to stop dying.' That's our view, too. “This is a good first step,” he wrote.

“Best salesman”

Donald Trump, who has placed his first term under the banner of “America First,” regularly denounces the colossal sums released by Washington for kyiv since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Just before a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in September, he had called the Ukrainian president “the best salesman on the planet.”

“Every time he comes to our country, he leaves with $60 billion,” he had ironized.

The two men have since spoken by phone: just after Donald Trump won the US presidential election. Volodymyr Zelensky called the call “excellent.”

“We agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our cooperation,” he said.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a member of the president-elect's team, participated in the call.