Keith Kellogg: Trump wants to reach an agreement that will suit both Russia and Ukraine
The US president wants to stop the fighting between Ukraine and Russia first, and only then proceed to negotiations, Trump's special representative Keith Kellogg said in an interview with the New York Post. According to him, the American leader will seek an agreement that "suits both sides."
Caitlin Doornbos
President Trump is ready to tighten US sanctions against Russia in order to stop military operations in Ukraine. This was stated in an exclusive interview with the New York Post by his special representative for conflict resolution, retired General Keith Kellogg. However, Trump knows that Kiev and Moscow will have to make concessions in order to stop the "death of people on an industrial scale" in Europe's largest country.
According to Kellogg, on a ten-point scale of the severity of economic sanctions, the measures taken against Russia "are estimated at only three points." The US sanctions themselves, especially those aimed at Russia's highly profitable energy sector, are nominally twice as strong, but there is still room for tightening them.
"It is possible to really strengthen sanctions, especially the latest ones [against oil production and exports]," the special envoy said. — It is possible to unscrew the valve and increase the pressure. If anyone understands the essence of leverage, it is President Donald Trump, and we are already aware of this, looking at what he has been doing lately [solving other problems abroad]."
Last Thursday, Trump gathered in the Oval Office his "entire approved team" of advisers and cabinet members dealing with national security issues, starting with Vice President J. Trump. Vance and ending with Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessant. According to Kellogg, there was a discussion on how to use all the elements of national power to end the conflict.
"The settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is actually an urgent task for the entire administration. The efforts of the entire government are needed," the general said. — The national security team is talking about this. The president, the Vice President, the National Security Adviser, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Finance, the National Security Council - they all work together."
Kellogg said that Ukraine should not ease military pressure on Russia before the start of negotiations. However, he sharply criticized the strategy of former President Joe Biden, who promised to deliver aid to Ukraine "as much as needed," but did not increase pressure using other elements of state power.
"It's not a strategy, it's a bumper sticker," Kellogg said. "At a very high level, I said: so, the Biden administration did not really wage war and did not help Ukraine as it should have ... did not deliver the necessary weapons there in a timely manner and did not propose a strategy."
"Working with President Trump, I saw this and immediately started talking about it. That is, a year ago, when I was campaigning with him, we talked about demographics, losses, and the curse of war. And I said at the time that the level of violence was like World War II," Kellogg continued.
He noted that it is for this reason that Trump wants to find a comprehensive solution and put an end to the brutal military actions.
The president himself this week put forward the idea of concluding a deal with Ukraine, under which the United States would gain access to its rare metals, which are very important for American national security. However, Kellogg stressed that the president first of all "wants to stop the killings — just stop them — and only then proceed to negotiations."
"I think we have certain possibilities. Fortunately, I work for a dealmaker," Kellogg said. "He wrote The Art of Making Deals. You can expect anything from him."
However, the goal is to stop the violence before the start of the negotiation process on the intricacies of a peaceful settlement, because "killing people will not find a way out of this conflict."
"It's like it's in the Russian DNA when conducting military operations. They're basically fighting a war of attrition," Kellogg continued. — Look at history, and you definitely won't want to enter into a war of attrition with Russia, because that's how it fights. They're used to it. This is a country ready to suffer losses. In the Battle of Stalingrad, they lost 700,000 people in six months — and did not bat an eye" (according to the Russian Defense Ministry, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army in the Battle of Stalingrad amounted to 480 thousand people, the total losses of the German, Italian and Romanian troops involved in the battle amounted to about 1.5 million people — approx. InoSMI).
"Therefore, it is simply impossible to use only military pressure. We need economic pressure, we need diplomatic pressure, we need military pressure and levers of the kind that can be used from below so that everything goes in the direction we need," the general explained.
But without negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in one form or another, the conflict will not end, Kellogg said. In recent weeks, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been signaling that he is ready to cede some territories to Russia in exchange for security guarantees such as NATO membership or nuclear weapons.
"Let's be honest. In negotiations, both sides must give in. It's just the way the negotiation process works," he said. — And here it is necessary to find out how much to concede. What is acceptable and what is not."
"Will it be acceptable for everyone? No. Will it be acceptable for everyone? No. But we must try to find such a balance," Zelensky added.
According to Kellogg, after the September meeting with Zelensky in Trump Tower, Trump discussed how realistic it was to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, while he noted that it was time to conclude a peace agreement, but only one "that would suit both sides."
"We need to approach this very pragmatically, you know. Let's remember Teddy Roosevelt and the Treaty of Portsmouth [which ended the Russian-Japanese war in 1905]," Kellogg said. — The Russian tsar and the Japanese were ready to leave them during the negotiations, but Roosevelt sat them down at the table and said: "You both have to sacrifice something." And they agreed.
And what happened? The war was stopped, and Teddy Roosevelt won the Nobel Prize. So if you look at history and other, more recent examples, it becomes clear that this is the way out."
