Latest news with #KeithKellogg
Russia Today
9 hours ago
- Business
- Russia Today
Ukraine conflict a NATO ‘proxy war'
Russian President Vladimir Putin is right in considering the Ukraine conflict a proxy war against Russia, US President Donald Trump's special envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox News in an interview on Sunday. He said that while he believes the peace process will ultimately succeed, 'escalatory issues' remain. Kellogg referred to comments by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who last month indicated that Berlin would be open to supplying Kiev with Taurus cruise missiles. Kellogg addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin's perspective, saying 'he considers this a proxy war by NATO. And frankly… in a way it is.' 'The escalatory issues are still there,' Kellogg said. 'Chancellor Merz has said: well, I'm going to give the Ukrainians the Taurus missile system.' The German cruise missiles have a range of roughly 300 miles (482 km), which can allow Ukrainian strikes to reach deep into Russian territory, Kellog said. He added that Putin has made it clear: if such weapons are supplied to Ukraine, Russia will regard the suppliers as a party to the conflict. 'He considers this a proxy war by NATO. And frankly… in a way it is.' Russia can clearly see the other Western military support Ukraine is receiving, Kellogg added. 'Everybody has got to be willing to step back a bit,' and compromise, to get the peace process 'to an end state,' the envoy said. Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Merz's 'provocative' statements 'hinder peaceful efforts.' Moscow has stressed that any Ukrainian use of German Taurus missiles against Russian territory will be viewed as Berlin's direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict, as the armaments' use is impossible without the participation of Bundeswehr service members. Last year, after Trump's predecessor Joe Biden allowed the use of US ATACMS ballistic missiles in long-range strikes on Russian territory, Moscow retaliated by revamping its strategic doctrine and lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. Russia now considers any strike by a non-nuclear state backed up by a nuclear one as a joint attack. Both Kellogg and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have previously characterized the conflict as a proxy war. 'Frankly, it's a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia,' Rubio said in March, noting that the current White House administration is eager to see it end. Moscow has long designated the Ukraine conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia and repeatedly condemned arms supplies to Kiev as counterproductive to the peace process.
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Putin Was Right: Trump Envoy Keith Kellogg Stuns NATO In Blistering Attack Over Ukraine Stand
'Putin Was Right: Trump Envoy Keith Kellogg Stuns NATO In Blistering Attack Over Ukraine Stand Source: In a stunning admission, Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg declared that NATO is in a proxy war with Russia, echoing long-standing claims made by Vladimir Putin. Speaking to ABC News, Kellogg said that the West's military support for Kyiv justifies Russia's perspective of being under attack. He confirmed that the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany will join Ukraine-Russia peace talks on June 2. While endorsing diplomacy, Kellogg also condemned Russia's missile strikes on Kyiv as war crimes and violations of the Geneva Protocols.#UkraineWar #TrumpEnvoy #KeithKellogg #NATOvsRussia #ProxyWar #Putin #UkraineCrisis #PeaceTalks #Geopolitics #WarNews #RussiaUkraine #BreakingNews #USForeignPolicy #WorldWarThree
News24
3 days ago
- Business
- News24
Ukraine in NATO is ‘not on the table', Trump frustrated with Putin ‘unreasonableness'
The US doesn't see Ukraine in the NATO alliance, said envoy Keith Kellogg. Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are scheduled for Monday. Russian forces launched a massive drone attack overnight. US President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the US-led military alliance. Asked by US network ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastward to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said: 'It's a fair concern.' 'We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that - you know I could probably give you four other countries in NATO and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come in to NATO,' he told ABC late on Thursday. 'That's one of the issues that Russia will bring up.' 'They're not just talking Ukraine, they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova,' Kellogg said, adding that a decision on US views of NATO enlargement was for Trump to make. READ | Kellogg said the sequencing of the peace talks would include an attempt to merge the two memorandums drafted by Ukraine and Russia into one single document with talks in Turkey on Monday. 'When we get into Istanbul next week we'll sit down and talk,' Kellogg said, adding that the national security advisers from Germany, France and Britain would join discussions on the memorandum with the US. Yan Dobronosov/AFP Kellogg said Trump was 'frustrated' with Russia because he had seen 'a level of unreasonableness' from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He scolded Russia for striking Ukrainian cities and said he had told Ukraine to turn up to talks. READ | 3 injured as Russia attacks Ukraine, warns European allies not to supply long-range missiles A conservative estimate of dead and injured in the Ukraine war - from both sides combined - totals 1.2 million, Kellogg said. 'That is a stunning number - this is war on an industrial scale,' Kellogg told ABC. Russian forces launched a massive drone attack overnight that injured several people, including two teenagers, in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, local officials said on Friday. AFP Eight people, including two 16-year-olds, were injured in an attack in the village of Vasyliv Khutir, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. He gave no further details. The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia launched 90 drones and two ballistic missiles overnight against Ukraine that targeted the Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk regions. The Kharkiv region's main city also came under Russian drone attack which targeted a trolleybus depot and injured two people, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. 'Today, Kharkiv suffered another attack: The enemy fired 8 'shaheds' at one of the depots where our trolleybuses were being repaired and maintained,' he said on the Telegram messaging app. Andriy Andriyenko/65th Mechanised Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces/AFP He added that more than 30 nearby apartment buildings were damaged, while one trolleybus was completely destroyed, and 18 others sustained varying degrees of damage. Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city situated some 30km from the country's northeastern border, has been a repeated target of Russian air attacks.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Envoy Says Russian Concern over NATO Enlargement is Fair
US President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the US-led military alliance. Asked by US network ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastwards to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said: "It's a fair concern." "We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that - you know I could probably give you four other countries in NATO and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come in to NATO," he told ABC late on Thursday. "That's one of the issues that Russia will bring up." "They're not just talking Ukraine, they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova," Kellogg said, adding that a decision on US views of NATO enlargement was for Trump to make. Kellogg said the sequencing of the peace talks would include an attempt to merge the two memorandums drafted by Ukraine and Russia into one single document with talks in Turkey on Monday. "When we get into Istanbul next week we'll sit down and talk," Kellogg said, adding that the national security advisers from Germany, France and Britain would join discussions on the memorandum with the United States. Kellogg said Trump was "frustrated" with Russia because he had seen "a level of unreasonableness" from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He scolded Russia for striking Ukrainian cities and said he had told Ukraine to turn up to talks. A conservative estimate of dead and injured in the Ukraine war - from both sides combined - totals 1.2 million, Kellogg said. "That is a stunning number - this is war on an industrial scale," Kellogg told ABC.
Russia Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Russia Today
Russia has ‘fair concern' about NATO expansion
Russia's concerns about NATO expanding to its doorstep are 'fair,' US presidential envoy Keith Kellogg said Thursday in an interview with ABC News, as he discussed Moscow's expected proposal, aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict. Russia hopes to hold a new round of negotiations with Ukraine on Monday in Istanbul, where both parties would exchange draft memorandums on the next steps in the peace process, including a conditional cease-fire. Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration at not receiving the Russian draft in advance and said they might boycott the meeting. 'I always caution [Kiev's chief negotiator Rustem Umerov]: don't say things like that,' Kellogg said. 'Part of life is showing up, and you need to show you're serious.' ABC's Kyra Phillips cited reports that Moscow wants NATO leaders to issue a written commitment halting further enlargement — particularly the inclusion of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Kellogg has acknowledged that Russia's long-standing security concerns regarding the US-led alliance were reasonable. 'We're saying: okay, comprehensively we can stop the expansion of NATO coming close to your border,' he said, adding that such a move would ultimately require a presidential-level decision. During the Cold War, the United States gave the Soviet Union assurances that NATO would not expand eastward in exchange for support for German reunification. Since the 1990s, Russia has cited the alliance's enlargement as evidence of Western duplicity. Moscow has labeled NATO's 2008 promise to eventually admit Ukraine a key factor behind the current conflict. In 2021, the Kremlin offered a diplomatic proposal to ease tensions, but the United States and other NATO members said the organization's open-door policy was non-negotiable. NATO has described Ukraine's path to membership as 'irreversible.' However, US President Donald Trump's administration maintains that Kiev's accession is off the table. Russia and Ukraine reached a preliminary peace agreement in Istanbul in 2022, but Kiev later withdrew from talks, aiming for a military breakthrough with support from Western nations. Moscow sees the renewed talks launched earlier this month as a chance to revisit the proposal, which involves Ukraine adopting a stance of neutrality and limiting its military. Phillips pressed Kellogg on whether those terms were 'pretty extreme,' suggesting they were proof that Russia does not seek peace. Kellogg responded that ending the conflict was in Moscow's interest.
