Trump picks Keith Kellogg as envoy for Ukraine and Russia

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump nominated retired Gen. Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, choosing a longtime adviser who’s supported the president-elect’s aims to end the war swiftly, including by potentially cutting off military aid to Kyiv.

Trump, a longtime skeptic of continued U.S. assistance to Ukraine, has vowed to settle its conflict with Russia before even taking office. In writings over the last year, Kellogg has proposed a path forward that offers an indication of how Trump might try to fulfill that promise.

“Keith has led a distinguished Military and Business career, including serving in highly sensitive National Security roles in my first Administration,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social account on Wednesday. “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”

Kellogg, 80, was Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser and later joined Trump’s team during his first term. He has called for compelling Ukraine to enter talks with Russia by threatening to cut off arms supplies. But he’s also suggested keeping up support if Ukraine pursues diplomacy so it can negotiate from a position of strength.

He also envisions a potential deal that would freeze the current front line and create a demilitarized zone and put off the issue of NATO membership for Ukraine “for an extended period,” according to a piece he co-wrote for the America First Policy Institute, a group founded by several former Trump administration officials. He cited a Foreign Affairs article that proposed offering the Kremlin “some limited sanctions relief.”

“The war in Ukraine is an avoidable tragedy that resulted from President Biden’s incompetence as a world leader and his chaotic foreign policy,” Kellogg wrote with Fred Fleitz, who also served in Trump’s first administration.

President Joe Biden has recently sought to ramp up assistance for Ukraine, including by allowing Kyiv to strike military targets deeper within Russia, approving the sending of anti-personnel land mines and forgiving nearly $5 billion in debt. His administration has also called on Ukraine to lower its draft age, citing concerns that its biggest need now is manpower, not weapons.

By potentially putting Ukraine in a better negotiating position, Biden administration officials have argued that their last-minute push dovetails with the Trump camp’s calls for a faster settlement. Last week, Kellogg praised Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-made ATACMS missiles inside Russia.

“He’s actually given President Trump more leverage,” Kellogg said of Biden on Fox News. At the same time, he criticized the administration for not allowing the missiles to be used in Russia earlier.

Kellogg was a behind-the-scenes player in Trump’s first presidential transition, eventually landing the unheralded role of executive secretary and chief of staff to the National Security Council. Kellogg was a consistent and loyal presence on the White House national security team, even as he saw a succession of top advisers come and go.

Kellogg didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment sent to the America First Policy Institute and the Trump transition team.

In a post on X, he said: “It was the privilege of my life working for President Trump, and I look forward to working tirelessly to secure peace through strength while upholding America’s interests.”

While at the institute, Kellogg helped write An America First Approach to U.S. National Security, a book of essays that included the chapter on Ukraine. It argued that the U.S. should seek an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine though “bold diplomacy.”

“What we should not continue to do is to send arms to a stalemate that Ukraine will eventually find difficult to win,” he and Fleitz wrote in a piece that criticizes the “risk-averse” Biden administration for “incompetent policies” that led “entangled America in an endless war.”

“If you put aside the Biden administration bashing, there are outlines of a diplomatic strategy in the report,” Samuel Charap, a former advisor to the State Department and a senior political scientist at RAND Corp., said of Kellogg’s approach to Ukraine. “It is not by any means a plan to kowtow to Russia.”

Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month after the election. The Kremlin has denied a report that Trump and Putin spoke by phone days after the election.

Kellogg’s military experience dates to the Vietnam War, where he won several awards for valor. After retiring as a lieutenant general in 2003, he landed corporate stints at defense contractors Oracle Corp., Cubic Corp. and CACI International Inc.

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(With assistance from Gregory White and Iain Marlow.)

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