Exclusive: Trump's Ukraine envoy to meet Belarus' Lukashenko, sources say
WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - A senior Trump administration official is planning to travel to Belarus in the coming days to meet the country's president, according to four sources briefed on the matter, as ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia remain deadlocked.
If the official, Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, meets Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, he would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the authoritarian state in years.
The precise agenda of the meeting is unclear, though Kellogg in private has portrayed the trip as a step that could help jump-start peace talks aimed at ending Russia's war against Ukraine, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity as the trip has not been made public.
The State Department and the Belarusian embassy in Washington declined to comment. Kellogg and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Planning for such trips requires careful negotiation, and it is possible the trip could be canceled or modified at the last moment.
In 2020, during Trump's first term, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Belarus in what was then the highest-level U.S. visit to the eastern European country in over 20 years. The trip was part of a campaign under the first Trump administration to improve relations with Belarus at a time when relations between Minsk and Moscow were at a low point.
Trump's successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, shifted course after the 2020 Belarusian election, which international observers condemned as neither free nor fair. Massive street protests followed the election and were met with a brutal crackdown, and Belarus was largely shunned by Western countries.
The U.S. suspended operations at its embassy in 2022 as it became clear to Washington that the country would support Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Under Trump's second term, however, the administration has renewed its efforts to establish a working relationship with Belarus.
One U.S. official told Reuters the Trump administration had internally discussed ways to pull Minsk out of Moscow's sphere of influence and toward Washington's orbit, if only marginally.
In February, a deputy assistant secretary of state, Christopher Smith, and two other State Department officials traveled to Belarus to retrieve three political prisoners, The New York Times reported at the time. Smith had privately described the trip as the first step of a potential deal that would see scores of political prisoners released in return for an easing of U.S. sanctions, the Times reported.
A separate senior U.S. official pointed to the April 30 release by Belarus of Youras Ziankovich, a 47-year-old naturalized American citizen, as a sign that Lukashenko wanted to improve relations with Washington.
Western diplomats, however, have expressed skepticism about U.S. efforts to court Belarus, which remains firmly aligned and has deep economic links with its neighbor Russia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
38 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war live: Day of mourning for Kyiv attack begins after G7 fails to condemn Putin
Ukraine is marking a day of mourning on Wednesday after what Volodymyr Zelensky described as one of the worst attacks on Kyiv since the war with Russia began. At least 18 people were killed in the strikes, 16 in Kyiv and two in Odesa, as Russia fired nearly 500 missiles and drones at 27 locations in the capital. Mr Zelensky told the G7 that the attack by Vladimir Putin 's forces proved once again the need for Ukraine to be provided better air defences. He also told the G7 leaders in Canada that "diplomacy is now in a state of crisis" after US president Donald Trump left the summit a day early to address the conflict in the Middle East, skipping their meeting. Hosts Canada then dropped plans for the group to issue a strong statement on the war in Ukraine after resistance from the United States, a Canadian official told reporters. Mr Zelensky said Western allies need to continue calling on Mr Trump "to use his real influence" to force an end to the war. Trump administration 'disbands group focused on pressuring Russia' Trump administration officials have shelved an inter-agency working group created to formulate strategies for pressuring Russia into speeding up peace talks with Ukraine, it has been claimed. The group was established earlier in the spring but lost steam in May as it became increasingly clear that Donald Trump was not interested in adopting a more confrontational stance toward Moscow, three US officials told Reuters. "It lost steam toward the end because the president wasn't there. Instead of doing more, maybe he wanted to do less,' one official was quoted as saying. The final blow came roughly three weeks ago, when most members of the White House National Security Council, who were coordinating the group – including the entire team dealing directly with the Ukraine war – were dismissed as part of a broad purge, they alleged. Arpan Rai18 June 2025 06:48 North Korea's Kim met Putin's top security official Shoigu North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Russia's top presidential security adviser Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang yesterday as the two discussed a "special military operation" in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, state media KCNA reported today. Mr Kim and Mr Shoigu, secretary of Russia's Security Council, discussed cooperation plans for Moscow's rebuilding of the Kursk region, the report said, confirming earlier reports of the meeting by Russian media. North Korea will send 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 sappers to the region to help rebuild it after the Ukrainian incursion that North Korean troops helped Moscow repel this year, Mr Shoigu was cited as saying by the Russian state news agency TASS today. His visit to Pyongyang and meeting with Mr Kim came nearly two weeks after his last meeting with the leader of the reclusive state on 4 June. Plans to commemorate the "heroic feats" of North Korean soldiers in the operations in the Kursk region, a part of Russia which Ukrainian forces infiltrated last year, were also discussed during the meeting, KCNA said. Arpan Rai18 June 2025 06:09 Zelensky informs G7 leaders of Russia's attack across Ukraine: 'A difficult night' Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the overnight Russian attacks from Tuesday that killed 15 people and injured 150-plus in his country as he met with allies at G7 summit. "Our families had a very difficult night, one of the biggest attacks from the very beginning of this war,' he said. "We need support from allies and I'm here," Mr Zelensky said. He added, "We are ready for the peace negotiations, unconditional ceasefire. I think it's very important. But for this, we need pressure." Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said the attack "underscores the importance of standing in total solidarity with Ukraine." While the summit was meant to showcase unity on top global issues, no joint statement on the conflict in Ukraine was released. Arpan Rai18 June 2025 05:48 Zelensky thanks Canada for military aid and Russia sanctions Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky departed from the G7 summit yesterday with new aid from host Canada for its war against Russia. But before exiting, he warned that diplomacy is in "crisis" after the leaders missed the chance to press US president Donald Trump for more action. 'Today, we have concrete decisions on increased military support, new tranches of aid funded by frozen Russian assets, and additional sanctions targeting what fuels Russia's war. It is important that partners are ready not only to support our defence now, but also to rebuild Ukraine together after the war ends,' Mr Zelensky said. Arpan Rai18 June 2025 05:30 Video report: Russian drone attack hits residential building in Kyiv with 14 killed Arpan Rai18 June 2025 05:19 Starmer tightens screws on Putin as he announces raft of fresh sanctions against Russia Sir Keir Starmer has promised to keep 'tightening the screws' on Vladimir Putin as he announced a raft of fresh sanctions on dozens of new Russian finance, military and energy targets. The prime minister is piling fresh pressure on the Russian war machine and seeking to win further backing from G7 leaders at a key summit in Canada. After repeated refusals from Putin to engage in peace talks, and fresh Russian strikes on Kyiv on Tuesday, the PM said his sanctions will 'choke off his ability to continue his barbaric war' in Ukraine. Starmer tightens screws on Putin with raft of fresh sanctions against Russia Keir Starmer said his sanctions would choke off Putin's ability to continue his war Arpan Rai18 June 2025 05:18 Trump unaware of major Russian attack on Kyiv when asked by reporter Donald Trump appeared to be unaware of a major Russian attack that killed at least 15 people and injured 116 in Kyiv and Odesa on Tuesday, hours after the assault took place. Asked about the attack by a reporter aboard Air Force One as he travelled back from the G7 summit in Canada – where reports suggested he had been due to meet Volodymyr Zelensky before cutting his trip short – Mr Trump said: 'When was that? When?' Told that the attack was very recent, the US president replied: 'Just now? You mean as I'm walking back to see you, that's when it took place? Sounds like it. I'll have to look at it.' The Kyiv Independent reported that seven hours later, the White House was still yet to comment on the Russian attack. Arpan Rai18 June 2025 04:50 Trump's early exit forces G7 to abandon joint statement on Ukraine Canada dropped plans for the G7 to issue a strong statement on the war in Ukraine after resistance from the United States, a Canadian official told reporters. The G7 wealthy nations struggled to find unity over the conflict in Ukraine after Trump expressed support for Russian president Vladimir Putin and left a day early to address the Israel-Iran conflict from Washington. Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said Ottawa would provide C$2bn ($1.47bn) in new military assistance for Kyiv as well as impose new financial sanctions. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had told the G7 leaders that "diplomacy is now in a state of crisis" and said they need to continue calling on Donald Trump "to use his real influence" to force an end to the war, in a post on his Telegram account. Arpan Rai
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Putin under pressure to declare war on Ukraine
When Ukraine smuggled dozens of drones into the back of freight trucks and launched a surprise attack on Vladimir Putin's prized nuclear bombers, Russia's most radical voices were furious. 'Shock and outrage' is how one high-ranking Russian official described the mood in the Kremlin the day after the strike. Another Russian official told The Telegraph: 'Like every thinking patriot, I took it as a personal tragedy.' The fury ran so deep in some quarters that there were renewed calls for Putin to 'declare war' on Ukraine – a demand that may seem baffling to Western observers, given that the conflict is already Europe's bloodiest since the Second World War. But amongst Russia's hardline nationalist elite, there is growing belief that Putin has not gone far enough, that he should formally declare war, recruit a million more men, and wipe out Volodymyr Zelensky's government with daily missile strikes on Kyiv. The Telegraph spoke to Kremlin insiders to assess whether Ukraine's drone attack – dubbed Operation Spider Web – might push Russia to escalate even further. All agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. 'Explosions, drones, sabotage, and possibly even terrorist attacks are what the future may hold for us if the Zelensky regime is not completely destroyed,' said a current high-ranking Russian government official. He described himself as hawkish and admitted sympathising with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner warlord who led a failed mutiny against Putin in June 2023 and was later killed in a plane crash. 'If Ukraine ceases to exist in its current form, the criminal underground will be demoralised,' he claimed. Yet despite the scale of Ukraine's strike, which damaged at least 20 Russian nuclear bombers, according to US estimates, the Kremlin has so far stuck to a more cautious approach. 'This did not catalyse a political discussion or a change in the format of military operations,' said a former senior Kremlin official who once directed operations against Ukraine. 'In the Russian power system, where inertia and preserving the current balance are essential, that speaks volumes.' Another source, based in an analytical centre close to Russia's defence ministry was blunt: 'Could the president declare war on Kyiv? Right now, unlikely. As cynical as it may sound, the leadership is satisfied with the current situation.' The hawkish opposition Traditionally, opposition to Putin has come from liberal critics. But since the invasion, a new breed of nationalist opposition has emerged – figures who claim the Russian president is too cautious. The roots of this anger go back to 2014, when some hardliners accused Putin of failing to fully support Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. One of the most prominent is Igor Girkin – also known as Strelkov – a former FSB officer and leading figure in the 'Angry Patriots', a faction demanding Ukraine's total destruction. After criticising Russia's handling of the war, Girkin was jailed for extremism in 2024. 'I serve the Fatherland!' he shouted after the verdict. Such figures may be marginal, but they wield outsized influence inside Russia's security apparatus. 'The fact they're the guys with the guns means the Kremlin has to at least be aware of them,' Mark Galeotti, a British historian and expert on Russian security, told The Telegraph. Why declare war? To most in the West, the conflict is clearly a war. But Putin still refers to it as a ' special military operation ' – a distinction that matters to Russia's hawks. They argue that only a formal war declaration would permit full-scale escalation – daily inter-continental missile strikes, mass mobilisation, and perhaps even the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Earlier this month, the nationalist podcast Russians with Attitude argued: 'Liberal Putinism has its perks – comfortable, modern, and nearly sanction-proof. A true 21st-century experience. But the cons are clear – soft-glove warfare, sparing enemy leadership, and burying failure.' Currently, most Russian soldiers are volunteers attracted by pay packets of about 200,000 roubles (£1,900) a month – a significant sum in rural areas. Declaring war could enable the mobilisation of two million reservists. 'The government and the authorities would essentially be given carte blanche to move the country on to an explicit war footing,' said Emily Ferris, Russia analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). But even as the bloodshed continues, the Kremlin has been careful to shield most Russians from its effects. At the outset of the invasion in 2022, Putin banned the words 'war' and 'invasion' from the media. Recruitment has been focused on the outer regions, not Moscow or St Petersburg. Russians may be dying in droves, but they do so mostly out of sight. In Moscow, Artyom, a cybersecurity researcher who did not want to give his real name, told The Telegraph that most young people trust in Putin's decisions as the country 'stands proud' with living standards still high despite the sanctions. Cracks in the illusion The Kremlin is forecast to spend 6.3 per cent of GDP on defence this year, which is the highest since the Cold War but not what would be expected of a country on a full war-time footing. For comparison, Ukraine spent 34 per cent of its GDP on defence last year. British defence spending as a percentage of GDP rose to more than 50 per cent during the Second World War. 'Mobilisation undermines economic stability,' said one current government employee. According to him, those close to Putin are able to persuade the Russian president that mass mobilisation would be a step towards the war effort's collapse. 'And why is it needed now? We have Kalibr missiles, we have volunteers. Their resources are not yet exhausted,' he added. A new wave of mobilisation would mean not only economic strain but also a public acknowledgement that the Kremlin is not succeeding in its three-year war against its neighbour. 'That is too costly an admission in a situation where everything hinges on the illusion of control,' noted the former high-ranking Kremlin official. While that illusion may not last forever, experts believe Putin's military will be able to fight at the current rate into next year, and possibly for years. 'I think next year is when a certain number of economic chickens come home to roost,' Mr Galeotti said. 'But the Russians will be able to fight this war for years.' The Kremlin appears to agree. Vladimir Medinsky, Putin's chief negotiator, recently told The Wall Street Journal that Russia could continue fighting for 'another 21 years' – invoking Peter the Great's long war with Sweden. Putin's popularity has surged since the invasion of Ukraine, according to both state-owned polls and those of the Leveda Centre, an independent institution that has frequently drawn the Kremlin's ire. However, that could change if Putin were to start mass mobilisation. There's also the question of fear. 'As soon as you call it war, every parent who has got a kid doing national service or going to be soon is going to start getting scared that they are about to be sent to the front,' said Mr Galeotti. In other words, escalation is not without political risk. While nationalist bloggers and pro-war influencers dominate Telegram and the Z-pilled commentariat, the Kremlin is all too aware of how fragile domestic control might become if the war truly came home. That explains Putin's brutal repression. There is no longer an organised war party in Russia. The prominent figures of that camp – and liberal opponents – have been removed. Mr Prigozhin, who at one time had been close to Putin, was killed in a suspected bombing weeks after his failed mutiny. Girkin is in prison. Alexei Navalny, Russia's most popular politician, died in a penal colony. This served as a signal from Putin to anyone who might display political initiative. Simultaneously, the security services are tightening control over radical patriotic and nationalist circles that have become more active after the invasion. 'So far, no power centre inside the country is capable of imposing its will on Putin,' said a Telegraph source close to the State Duma leadership. Limits of escalation In any case, for all the hawkish rhetoric, Putin's capacity to escalate is not limitless. That much was exposed by his response to Operation Spider Web. Given the significance of the attack, warmongers had demanded a massive response. They didn't get one. There's no denying the horror Ukrainian cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv have faced during massive drone barrages in recent days. But the retaliation was limited, by both Western standards and Russian expectations. 'The response to Operation Spider Web could have been a lot worse. That would've been the time to have a major response, they didn't do it,' Ms Ferris said. Experts believe Putin's military simply lacks the resources. Despite sabre-rattling over tactical nuclear weapons and strategic missile strikes, Russia doesn't have the capacity to launch the kind of daily missile barrages some of its loudest nationalists fantasise about. 'There's always more room for escalation,' Mr Galeotti said. 'Maybe Putin could fire a few hundred extra drones per day. But that's about it.' For now, though, the fantasy of full-scale war – of Oreshnik missiles fired daily at Kyiv, of Zelensky's government turned to rubble, remains just that – a fantasy.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Global conflict levels highest since end of Second World War
Global conflict has risen to the highest level since the end of the Second World War, driven up by spiralling violence in the Middle East and Ukraine. A total of 59 active conflicts are currently raging in more than 35 countries – the most since 1945 – with 152,000 conflict-related deaths recorded in 2024, according to the 2025 Global Peace Index, an annual report on armed violence. The report published by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) captures a world on the brink, with the current unipolar world order in flux. 'We're ushering in a new age,' said Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the IEP. 'The current international order is at a tipping point. The world order is seeing its biggest chance since the Second World War,' he told The Telegraph. The annual report takes a series of data points and ranks every country by how peaceful they are. Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Austria and Switzerland topped the table in 2025, while the five least peaceful countries were Russia, Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen. The UK ranked as the 30th most peaceful, while the US ranked at 128 out of 163 countries. 'A fundamental realignment' The report's authors also analysed the way in which different countries project influence beyond their borders, and found that the influence of the US, China and Russia on global affairs. The influence of the US, China and Russia on the world order is waning, according to the report, with mid-level powers becoming more active and influential within their regions due to their rising wealth. The number of countries wielding significant geopolitical influence beyond their borders has risen to 34, up from just six in the 1970s. Nations like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India, the UAE, Israel, South Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia have emerged as prominent regional powers. 'Middle power nations are rising. They're starting to become more and more active,' said Mr Killelea, adding that the transformation has been driven by intensifying great power competition and unsustainable debt burdens in the world's most fragile states. 'This is leading to a fundamental realignment and a possible tipping point to a new international order, the nature of which still can't be fathomed.' Wars are becoming more internationalised, with more countries than ever involved in conflicts beyond their borders. Ukraine and Russia, for example, rely on the support of numerous international allies, while there are also believed to be at least seven countries backing both sides of the civil war raging in Sudan. Mr Killelea warned that Donald Trump's administration has unsettled the global economy and therefore could lead to an increase in conflict in years to come. 'The Trump administration's decisions have been globally unsettling on the economic outlook now,' he explained. 'As economic output plummets, it is likely to increase global tensions, which will lead to more conflict globally.'
