Trump's special envoy Kellogg: pragmatic approach needed to settle war in Ukraine

Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has said that the approach to ending the war should be pragmatic, which implies certain concessions from both the Russian and Ukrainian sides.

Kellogg said that the war would not end without negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which would require both sides to make concessions.

"And that’s where you have to find out, 'OK, where is this at? What’s acceptable?' Is it gonna be agreeable to everybody? No. Is it gonna be acceptable to everybody? No. But you try to run this balance," Kellogg said in an interview with The New York Post.

Kellogg noted that after meeting with Zelenskyy at Trump Tower in September, Trump said that a deal could be struck "that's good for both sides".

"You have to approach that in a very pragmatic way, you know? I go back to Teddy Roosevelt and the Treaty of Portsmouth [that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.]

The czar of Russia and the Japanese were ready to walk out the door [during negotiations] and Roosevelt basically got them together and said, ‘Both of you got to give a little. And what happens is you get Teddy Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize and the war stops. So I think when you look at that, and even more recent examples, that’s just the kind of the way it is," he added.

He also criticised the previous US administration for its policy on the Russo-Ukrainian war and said that Donald Trump would have a "holistic approach".

Earlier, Kellogg insisted that Ukraine should be ready to hold elections during the war, as it is "a sign of a healthy democracy".