He is Donald Trump’s “Mr. Ukraine.” The president-elect announced on Wednesday, November 27, the appointment of General Keith Kellogg as emissary to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.
“You have been with me from the beginning! Together we will achieve peace through strength and make America and the world safe again!” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social network.
National Security Advisor
A veteran of the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, Keith Kellogg has been one of Donald Trump’s main foreign policy advisors since 2016. Little known to the general public, he held several high positions during the Republican’s first term.
Between 2017 and 2018, the soldier served as chief of staff of the White House National Security Council. He also briefly chaired this council, responsible for White House foreign policy, acting for a few days after the resignation of General Michael T. Flynn.
Keith Kellogg then served as Vice President Mike Pence’s national security advisor until Donald Trump’s term ended in January 2021.
Pressure on Zelensky
The general has been involved in several investigations into Donald Trump since his first term, recalls the American news agency Associated Press. Keith Kellog was among the Trump administration officials who listened to the July 2019 call between the president and Volodymyr Zelensky during which the Republican pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate the activities of Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
This appeal is at the center of the first of two impeachment proceedings (accusation) launched by the Democrats against Donald Trump. Accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, the president was ultimately acquitted by the Republican-dominated Senate.
Highly critical of the billions of dollars released by the United States for Ukraine, Donald Trump promised to resolve the war between kyiv and Moscow even before taking the oath of office in January, without ever explaining how.
The 80-year-old former general, appointed by the Republican to lead this mission, raised the issue in a note published in April by the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank close to Donald Trump’s campaign.
Postpone Ukraine’s accession to NATO
“Any future US military aid will require Ukraine to engage in peace talks with Russia,” he said in the document. He also called for “postponing Ukraine’s membership in NATO for an extended period” to “convince (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to participate in peace talks.”
In his note, written together with another conservative, the former general estimates that “the Ukrainian government and people will have difficulties accepting a negotiated peace that does not return all of their territory.”
“But as Donald Trump said (…) in 2023: ‘I want everyone to stop dying’. That is also our point of view. It is a good first step,” he writes.
Donald Trump, who put his first term under the motto “America First”, regularly denounces the staggering amounts released by Washington to kyiv since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The businessman called the Ukrainian president “the best salesman on the planet.” “Every time he comes to our country, he leaves with $60 billion,” he joked.
In the midst of the US presidential campaign, the two men spoke in the billionaire’s tower in New York at the end of September, during a meeting described as “very productive” by Volodymyr Zelensky.
The two presidents then had a new telephone exchange after Donald Trump’s victory. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and a member of the president-elect’s team, participated in the call.
Source: BFM TV
