A US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, has been excluded from peace talks on Moscow’s request, according to a report by NBC News on Thursday, citing sources. Russian officials reportedly view Kellogg as too war-prone and “too close to Ukraine”.
Kellogg, a retired US Army general, was absent from the talks between Russia and the US in Saudi Arabia last month and the talks between the US and Ukraine in Jeddah this week. The White House confirmed that Trump’s Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will instead participate in the next round of talks with Russia, arriving in Moscow on Thursday.
“A Kellogg is an ex-American general who stands too close to Ukraine” a Russian official was quoted by NBC as saying. “Not our kind of person, not the caliber we’re looking for.”
A Trump administration official confirmed to the press that Moscow did not want Kellogg to be part of the peace process. Another source claimed that Kellogg’s exclusion had “hit him hard”, while neither Kellogg’s office nor Moscow have commented on the report.
Kellogg has supported Trump’s demands for an end to the Ukraine conflict, but his views on achieving peace do not align with those of Moscow. He has advocated for the continuation of US aid to Kiev, which Russia views as prolonging the conflict and has spoken in favor of freezing the conflict along the current front lines, which Moscow rejects in favor of a lasting solution. Kellogg has also advocated for the use of frozen Russian state funds for the reconstruction and rearmament of Ukraine, an idea Russia has labeled as theft.
In an interview with RT Russian on Wednesday, political analyst Malek Dudakov hinted that Kellogg could be permanently removed from the talks after the tense meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late February, which ended in a heated exchange of words after Zelensky refused Trump’s demand for peace talks with Russia. Trump had accused Zelensky of “playing with the Third World War”, before the meeting was cut short. The incident delayed a key agreement between the US and Ukraine on rare earth and led to a temporary suspension of US military aid and intelligence sharing with Kiev.
“Essentially, Kellogg was responsible for communication with the Ukrainian side, he gave the Ukrainians instructions and we see that all this has led to a great failure. And now he will not participate in new negotiations” Dudakov said to RT.