OPINION: General Kellogg Sits the Bench in Blow to Clear-Eyed Ukraine Peace Talks

In a move that has raised eyebrows from Washington to Kyiv, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, President Donald Trump’s hand-picked special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has reportedly been sidelined from ceasefire negotiations.

Posts on X and reports from Politico and Newsweek confirm what many feared: the Trump administration is shuffling its deck, and a seasoned military mind is being pushed to the sidelines. For Ukraine, where every tactical decision is a matter of survival, this could signal a troubling shift in America’s approach to ending the war.

Kellogg, a retired three-star general with 36 years in the US Army, brings a resume that towers over most of Trump’s negotiation team. From Special Forces operations in Vietnam and Cambodia to commanding paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne during the Iraq Wars, Kellogg has seen combat up close. He’s not just a desk jockey; he’s a soldier who understands the grind of logistics, the chaos of battlefield tactics, and the cold calculus of military leverage.

His stints as Trump’s acting National Security Advisor and Chief of Staff of the National Security Council only sharpened his strategic edge. This is a man who knows war – and knows how to end it. Kellogg’s clear-eyed assessments of Ukraine’s fight have been critical. He’s pushed for a ceasefire tied to hard realities: freezing front lines, leveraging US aid to force talks, and ensuring Ukraine negotiates from strength, not surrender. His April 2024 policy paper with Fred Fleitz laid out a pragmatic plan – arm Ukraine to deter Russia, but demand both sides sit down. It’s not starry-eyed diplomacy; it’s a soldier’s logic, rooted in the muddy trenches of Donbas and the supply lines keeping Kyiv’s forces alive.

Compare that to Trump’s other negotiators – Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff. Rubio is a former senator with a hawkish streak but no boots-on-the-ground experience. Waltz, a Green Beret turned congressman, has combat creds but lacks Kellogg’s decades of high-level command. That leaves Mr. Witkoff. A billionaire real estate mogul with zero military experience, Witkoff may be less than fully informed on the subject of Russian perfidy.  

A durable peace in Ukraine will not be a mere real estate deal and can only be predicated on increased Western military aid to Ukraine and a firm deterrence of Russia. Thus far, Trump has approached the talks with a stick and carrot approach – using the stick to punish Ukraine with intelligence and arms “pauses” that facilitated Russian ground gains. And the carrot seems to have been offered to Putin – even as missile attacks on Ukrainian cities continue and a Russian crewed merchant ship collided with an anchored American flagged tanker in what appears to be a yet another deliberate “accident” at sea.

Gen. Kellogg’s presence at the negotiation table will be sorely missed. Without him, negotiations with Russia run the risk of becoming a political pageant, not a strategic reckoning. Ukraine needs Kellogg’s voice. Russia respects strength, not platitudes. Sidelining General Kellogg could mean a ceasefire that’s all optics, no substance – leaving Kyiv exposed.

Trump promised peace in 24 hours. Without Kellogg’s steady hand, that’s just another campaign boast.

The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.