US President-elect Donald Trump's newly appointed Special Representative for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, plans to visit Kyiv next month and will be open to meetings in Moscow if invited, according to Bloomberg.
Following Trump’s election victory, discussions have emerged about potential peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, as Trump has expressed a desire to end the war swiftly. However, it remains uncertain how he will persuade Moscow to engage in negotiations. Reports suggest that Trump might consider a peace deal that compromises Ukraine’s territorial integrity, raising concerns among allies regarding future US support for Ukraine.
A source familiar with the situation also reported that Kellogg plans to visit London, Paris, and Rome, though these plans have not been finalized.
"Kellogg’s potential openness to travel to Moscow after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration would be an extraordinary step for a US official amid the raft of sanctions against Russia since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine," says the report.
The source emphasized that the trip would focus on gathering information, not pursuing any specific political agenda.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s team has not yet responded to Bloomberg’s inquiry regarding the planned trip.
Earlier, Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev reacted to potential peace talks
between Ukraine and Russia, saying that Russian ruler Vladimir Putin would reject them.
“Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we take it and then tell him to screw himself because we don’t like any of it. That’d be the whole negotiation,” Malofeyev told the Financial Times.
He added that Trump “only has a chance of ending the war” if he does what Russia wants. In June 2024, Putin said Russia would cease fighting if Ukraine abandoned its aspirations to join NATO and withdrew its troops from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, RBC reports.
Related:
- Reuters: NATO takes over coordination of military aid to Kyiv from US
- NBC News: Trump team in talks with Biden and Ukrainian officials about ending war with Russia
- Bloomberg: US considers new Russia oil sanctions to weaken Putin ahead of Trump presidency
- HuffPost: Pro-Ukrainian activists in US push for urgent aid to Ukraine before Trump takes office
