U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for Ukraine and Russia said Trump will take Ukraine’s interests into account when he starts working on a settlement to end the war in Ukraine and will aim to make sure the solution is equitable.
“People need to understand he’s not trying to give something to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin or the Russians,” said Keith Kellogg, the retired lieutenant-general whom Trump has designated as his envoy and tasked with leading negotiations to end the war.
“He’s actually trying to save Ukraine and save their sovereignty,” Kellogg said in the interview with Fox News on January 8. “He’s going to make sure it’s equitable and it’s fair and he’s said that repeatedly,” including to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Trump said during last year’s election campaign he could end the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. He now says he hopes to end the fighting within six months.
"I hope long before six months," Trump said at a news conference on January 7 when asked if he could solve the war within half a year.
Kellogg said he would prefer to set an even shorter time span of 100 days from Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
“I’m on the clock. He’s on the clock as well because he wants to end [the war] as quickly as he can,” Kellogg said. “He knows it’s tough one…but he’s committed to it.”
Kellogg declined to divulge the content of any of his conversations with Trump on the war, saying Trump “speaks for himself” and more information would be forthcoming after the inauguration.
He indicated that the groundwork is being laid for Trump and Putin to talk.
“We’ll set the conditions…and he will eventually get to the position where he’ll be talking with Putin and also President Zelenskiy as well, and I think they are going to come to a…solution in the near term,” Kellogg said.
He was not asked about the postponement of a trip that he was expected to make this month to Kyiv and other European capitals. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha announced on January 7 that the trip would be rescheduled.
The envoy-designate in the interview criticized President Joe Biden for not talking with Putin, saying it has been more than two years since they spoke. Trump on the other hand speaks with America’s adversaries and allies alike, he said.
“He actually knows that you need to talk to people to get to an end state and that is what we are going to do,” Kellogg said.
