WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy said Sunday that both Kyiv and Moscow would have to make concessions if they are to successfully negotiate a solution to the ongoing war.
“I think both sides will give a little bit,” Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who recently returned from a visit to Ukraine, said in a televised Fox News interview.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “has already indicated he will soften his position on land,” said Kellogg, adding that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “is going to have to soften his positions as well.”
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Zelensky long rejected any territorial concessions to Russia, whose troops control a large swath of southeastern Ukraine, but he faces pressure amid mounting battlefield losses and uncertainty about continued US support.
Russia, for its part, has sought assurances that Ukraine will never join NATO.
Trump, during his campaign for the presidency, had promised a quick end to the nearly three-year-old war, but has provided few details of how he hoped to do so.
Putin said Tuesday that his country could hold peace talks with Ukraine, but ruled out speaking directly with Zelensky, calling him “illegitimate” because his presidential term has expired.
Ukraine has not held elections since the outbreak of war and ensuing institution of martial law, which Kellogg said Sunday was permitted under the Ukrainian constitution.
Zelensky has in turn said that Putin is “afraid” of negotiations.
Kellogg on Friday told Fox News that Trump “wants to get it done,” and added, “I feel very, very confident that we can actually make something happen.”
Asked how long that might take, he said, “I would like to say it’s months, but it’s not years.”
Since taking office January 20, Trump has threatened tougher sanctions on Russia and claimed that Zelensky is ready to negotiate.
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