President-elect Trump’s choice for special envoy to the Russia-Ukraine war, Keith Kellogg, has offered fairly detailed proposals for ending the war that began almost three years ago.
Trump has promised to end the war within a day of returning to the White House, and last week tapped Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who served as chief of staff on Trump’s National Security Council, to lead that effort.
In a research report co-written by Kellogg last May for the America First Policy Institute (AMFI), he called the war an “avoidable tragedy” caused in part by President Biden’s “incompetence as a world leader.”
“The Biden Administration’s risk-averse pattern in the armament of Ukraine coupled with a failure in diplomacy with Russia has prolonged the war in Ukraine, which now finds itself in a war of attrition with Russia,” he wrote at the time.
“Bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties,” Kellogg wrote in the report.
The president-elect has said the war never would have started if he had remained in the White House, but has offered few specifics on how he intends to resolve it upon returning to power in January.
Controversially, Kellogg has said that further U.S. aid to Ukraine should be conditional on Ukraine’s willingness to participate in peace talks.
To persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to join these discussions, Kellogg recommended the president and other NATO leaders offer to delay Ukraine’s membership in the alliance in exchange for a peace deal with security guarantees.
The Biden administration has not publicly pressured Ukraine into peace talks, but has been criticized for being too careful in giving Ukraine weapons systems necessary to push back Russia.
The U.S. has not supported Ukraine’s immediate ascension into NATO, but has joined the alliance in committing to its eventual addition.
Kellogg, like Trump, places a priority on keeping U.S. troops out of “unnecessary and unending wars,” while still projecting military strength.
“It means working in alliances and with partners to promote regional security while requiring alliance members and allies to carry their full weight in defending security in the region,” Kellogg wrote in the AMFI report.
Kellogg has criticized the large amounts of money and weaponry aid given to Ukraine over the past two years, arguing in the report that it has depleted U.S. military supplies, its defense industrial base and risked the country’s military readiness.
Advocating against sending arms and money to a “stalemate,” Kellogg said a “formal U.S. policy” is needed to bring the war to an end. This includes a policy to see a ceasefire and negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict.”
“The United States would continue to arm Ukraine and strengthen its defenses to ensure Russia will make no further advances and will not attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement,” he suggested in the report.
