BRUSSELS, Belgium: US envoy Keith Kellogg said on Monday that Washington would not pressure Ukraine into accepting any peace deal brokered by President Donald Trump to end the war, ahead of his visit to Kyiv.
Kellogg is set to arrive in Ukraine on Wednesday for three days of talks that will include a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
His visit to Kyiv will come after top US officials meet Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first time since Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed to launch Ukraine peace efforts immediately.
Kellogg said US officials were engaged in parallel efforts to bring Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table — with him spearheading the outreach to Ukraine.
Trump’s envoy insisted that it would ultimately be up to Zelensky to decide if Ukraine accepts any deal that the US leader brokers.
“The decision by Ukrainians is a Ukrainian decision,” Kellogg told journalists after talks with US allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“Zelensky is the elected leader of a sovereign nation and those decisions are his and nobody will impose those on an elected leader of a sovereign nation,” Kellogg said.
He insisted that his job was to “facilitate” a deal that would “ensure that there are solid security guarantees that Ukraine is a sovereign nation”.
European leaders on Monday met in Paris to try to come up with a strategy as fears swirl that they will be left on the sidelines of any talks.
The meeting, called by French President Emmanuel Macron, followed the United States’ unexpected move last week to exclude Kyiv and its European allies from peace negotiations.
After the meeting, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz briefed the media, and stressed that any peace deal must not be forced upon Ukraine.
“We welcome that there are talks about a peace agreement, but for us, it is clear this cannot be a diktat,” Scholz said.
Kellogg reiterated earlier suggestions that Europeans would not directly participate, but insisted they would have an “input”.
“I don’t think it’s reasonable or feasible to have everybody sitting at the table,” he said.
Kellogg said that “everything remains on the table” in the negotiations after US defence secretary Pete Hegseth poured cold water on Ukraine’s goals of joining NATO or regaining all its territory.
ALSO READ: Zelensky Set to Visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday After US-Russia Talks
He did not rule out that broader issues of European and global security would be brought up in negotiations between Washington and Moscow.
“I think what is brought into those discussions are unknowns,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if global issues are brought up,” he added.
The US envoy said that after nearly three years of war, he believed that both Russia and Ukraine were ready to call a halt as neither can score a decisive victory on the battlefield.
“You get the feeling right now that both sides kind of want to tap out,” he said.
“When you think about it, this is really unsustainable.”
