Keith Kellogg attends a press briefing at the White House in Washington in September 2020. (Drew Angerer, Getty Images/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia plans to visit Kyiv next month and would be open to meetings in Moscow if invited, as the incoming administration seeks to end the nearly three-year war.
Keith Kellogg, a retired general who served in national security roles in the first Trump administration, also plans to travel to London, Paris and Rome, according to a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified discussing the plans, which 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 U.S. official amid the raft of sanctions against Russia since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The trip will be focused on gathering information rather than implementing any specific policy goal, the person added.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the planned travel. Reuters first reported Kellogg’s plans to visit Kyiv and other European capitals.
Trump has pledged to end the war swiftly by pressuring both sides to the negotiating table — though he has not yet explained specific policy changes he plans to undertake. Kellogg, 80, has written publicly about how he shares Trump’s goal to broker a peace deal.
In his new role, Kellogg will need to navigate explaining Trump’s strategy to world leaders eager to understand how the U.S. approach to the conflict might change. In recent weeks, Trump has vowed to arm Ukraine enough to get Russian President Vladimir Putin into talks, but has also decried President Joe Biden’s move to allow Kyiv to fire U.S.-provided missiles into Russia, calling it a dangerous escalation. The incoming president has also threatened to cut off aid to Ukraine if it won’t seek a deal.
On Monday, Trump signaled he expects Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept some territorial losses as the price of peace.
“He should be prepared to make a deal, that’s all,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “Got to be a deal. Too many people being killed.”
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