President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that his envoy to Russia and Ukraine would be Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who was a national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence during the first Trump administration.
The position could play a crucial role in Mr. Trump’s stated plans to broker an end to a war that began nearly three years ago when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Trump has not offered details about what kind of peace agreement he envisions, though Ukrainian officials fear that he might slash aid to Ukraine and seek to cut a deal unfavorable to Kyiv with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Mr. Kellogg co-wrote a strategy paper in April that said the United States should focus on achieving a cease-fire and negotiated settlement to the 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 cease-fire or peace agreement,” Mr. Kellogg wrote with Fred Fleitz for the America First Policy Institute. “Future American military aid, however, will require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia,” they added.
The Biden administration has rejected calls for a cease-fire as favorable to Russia and has not used American aid to pressure Kyiv into peace talks.
The paper also said that Mr. Putin could be brought to the bargaining table with an offer by the United States and NATO, a mutual defense alliance, “to put off NATO membership for Ukraine for an extended period in exchange for a comprehensive and verifiable peace deal with security guarantees.” The alliance’s members have sent billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine during the war, and Ukraine has applied to become a member. Biden officials say Russia’s leader has shown no good-faith interest in peace talks.
It is unclear whether the paper reflected any of Mr. Trump’s views. Mr. Trump “also has a strategy to end the war that he has not fully revealed,” it said.
A Vietnam War veteran who helped to administer Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion of the country, Mr. Kellogg is seen as a relatively mainstream figure within Mr. Trump’s orbit. But he has also been a strong loyalist who advised Mr. Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016 and has publicly defended Mr. Trump against charges of wrongdoing or holding dangerous views.
“He was with me right from the beginning!” Mr. Trump said in a Wednesday statement announcing the selection. He added that Mr. Kellogg would support his vision of “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
In February, Mr. Kellogg defended Mr. Trump after the then-candidate declared that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who fail to meet the alliance’s targets for national military spending.
The comment provoked shock and outrage across Europe and from the Biden administration. But Mr. Kellogg said that Mr. Trump was “onto something” by emphasizing the responsibility of NATO members to maintain strong armies.
“I don’t think it’s encouragement at all,” Mr. Kellogg said of the hypothetical green light to Russia, because “we know what he means when he says it.”
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