(AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Saturday appointed Keith Kellogg as special envoy to Ukraine. Kellogg “will deal directly with President Zelenskyy, and Ukrainian leadership,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, adding, “He knows them well, and they have a very good working relationship together.”
A retired lieutenant general and former acting national security advisor during Trump’s first term, Kellogg had previously been described as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. But he was excluded from recent high-level talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the Ukraine war, and NBC News quoted a senior Russian official as saying President Vladimir Putin thought Kellogg was too pro-Ukraine. “Too close to Ukraine. Not our kind of person, not of the caliber we are looking for,” the official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, was quoted as saying.
Relations between Trump and Zelensky took a sharp turn for the worse last month when the US president called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” and questioned whether he truly wanted peace. But the 80-year-old Kellogg, after a meeting in Kyiv with Zelensky, praised him in a social media post as Ukraine’s “embattled and courageous leader” and said the two had enjoyed “extensive and positive discussions.”
Ceasefire talks have followed a rocky path, foundering after a blowup during a Zelensky visit to the White House, then appearing to be patched back together — at least until Putin this week listed ceasefire conditions that provoked an angry response from Kyiv. Kellogg served as national security advisor to vice president Mike Pence in the first Trump term. He served as acting national security advisor after the resignation of Michael Flynn and until Trump named H.R. McMaster as Flynn’s successor.
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