Trump selects longtime adviser Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had selected Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star general, as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

Kellogg, who is one of the architects of a decidedly conservative policy manual that outlines: America First National Security Program. for the new administration, will assume that role when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third year in February.

Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social account and said, “He has been with me from the very beginning! Together we will ensure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH and make America and the world SAFE AGAIN!”

Kellogg, an 80-year-old retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top defense adviser, was the vice president’s national security adviser Mike Pencehe was chief of staff of the National Security Council and later became Trump’s acting security adviser Michael Flynn resigned.

As special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Kellogg will have to deal with an increasingly unsustainable war between the two nations.

The Biden the administration began to urge Ukraine to do so quickly increase the size of your army by recruiting more soldiers and reforming mobilization laws to allow the conscription of soldiers from the age of 18.

Since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, the White House has provided more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine and expects to send billions more to Kiev before Biden leaves office in less than months.

Trump criticized the billions the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine. Washington has recently increased arms supplies and canceled multi-billion-dollar loans to Kiev. The new Republican president has said he could end the war within 24 hours, seeming to suggest he will pressure Ukraine to give up territory currently occupied by Russia.

As co-chair of the Center for American Security at the American First Policy Institute, Kellogg contributed several chapters to the group’s policy manual. The book, like the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” is a step toward outlining Trump’s national security agenda and avoiding the mistakes of 2016, when he entered the White House largely unprepared.

Kellogg wrote in April that “ending the Russia-Ukraine war will require strong America First leadership to forge a peace agreement and immediately end hostilities between both belligerents.”

Trump proposed national security advisor U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) tweeted Wednesday that “Keith has dedicated his life to defending our great country and is committed to bringing the war in Ukraine to a peaceful resolution.”

Kellogg has been a figure in many investigations into Trump, dating back to his first term. He was one of the administration officials who listened in on Trump’s July 2019 phone call Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart to continue investigating the Bidens.

The call, which Kellogg later said raised no concerns on his part, was at the center of the first of two House impeachment cases against Trump, who was twice acquitted by the Senate.

On January 6, 2021, hours before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Kellogg, then Pence’s national security adviser, listened in on a heated phone call in which Trump ordered his vice president to oppose or delay the certification in the US Congress. President Joe Biden victory.

He later told House investigators that he remembered Trump telling Pence words like, “You’re not tough enough to call.”

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Baldor reported from Washington. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.