Kellogg in Kyiv: Listening, negotiating, and seeking peace

As he stepped off the train at Kyiv’s Central Railway Station on the morning of February 19, US President Donald Trump’s special representative for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said:

“We are listening. We are ready to give what is needed.”

He mentioned the visit as “a good potential negotiating opportunity” and that his role was to listen and provide information to US President Donald Trump.

                   Glad to be back in Ukraine – Kellogg

Kellogg did not make many public comments during his trip to Ukraine. During that time, he limited himself to two brief posts on X social media. On the morning of February 20, Keith Kellogg wrote:

“We have a lot of work to do to end this brutal war, but the United States is committed to doing the hard work to help build a lasting peace. Today, there will be useful conversations with officials such as Andriy Yermak (head of the Ukrainian President’s Office).” He also added that he was “glad to return to Ukraine.”

It is worth noting that in 2023, Kellogg visited Ukraine as an ordinary citizen. At that time, he met with the mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, and visited cities that were occupied and close to the front.

After meeting with Trump’s special representative, Yermak said: “It is important for Ukraine to receive full information about the events taking place on the front line, about the resilience and spirit of our nation, which has not changed over the years, to see it with his own eyes and get all the details. We are confident in America’s continued support for our country. We want relations between our countries to remain open, based on the principles of trust and mutual success."

 

On the same day, Keith Kellogg also spoke with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Sirsky, and the heads of intelligence and special services. However, the details of these meetings were not disclosed to the public.

“A long and intense day with the Ukrainian leadership. Extensive and constructive discussions with the courageous, combative leader of a nation at war, Volodymyr Zelensky, and his talented national security team,” Kellogg wrote yesterday, February 21.

                          Press conference canceled

On February 20, Keith Kellogg met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibi, followed by a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Mariinsky Palace, the presidential residence of Ukraine. The conversation began in full view of journalists, television, and cameras. After shaking hands and patting each other on the shoulder, Zelensky thanked Kellogg for his visit. The two then sat down at the negotiating table, and the cameras were turned off.

A press conference was expected to follow the meeting, but Serhiy Nikiforov, the press secretary for the Ukrainian president, announced that it had been canceled.

“At the request of the American side, the format of the event will be in the form of a recording of the protocol. Statements, questions, and answers will not be presented,” Nikiforov said.

                           “Meeting that restores hope”

Vladimir Zelensky later commented on the conversation with Kellogg, calling it “good.”

“We discussed in detail the situation on the battlefield and how to return all our prisoners, as well as effective security guarantees. Ukraine has been striving for peace from the first second of this war, and we can and must make peace reliable and long-term so that Russia will never return with war,” Zelensky stressed.

Later, in an evening video message, he added that the meeting with Kellogg “restores hope” and again recalled the agreements with the United States:

“I ordered them to work quickly and very carefully. The economy and security should always go hand in hand, and the details of the agreements are important: the better the details are written, the greater the result.”

                                 “Using the communication channel with Trump”

It is difficult to assess the results of this visit so far. Alexander Merezhko, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, said that Kellogg “found himself in a very difficult situation” due to the critical moment in relations between the Donald Trump administration and Ukraine and Trump’s recent statements.

“I think this was unexpected for Kellogg as well. That is, he came with one message, but when he arrived, completely different things started. I am not sure that he was ready for this,” Merezhko said.

However, according to him, Ukraine needs to use the Trump channel to repeat messages and arguments at this critical moment. According to Merezhko, this visit will help to at least somewhat smooth out the “misunderstandings” that have arisen recently, and Trump’s visit to Ukraine will help normalize relations between Washington and Kyiv.

According to Timofey Milovanov, president of the Kyiv University of Economics, the cancellation of the Kellogg and Zelensky press conference could have been due to two reasons.

“Either there is nothing to say, or one of the parties wanted to say a lot. But he can do it later, even today. Directly or indirectly through other sources. So far, it seems to me like an ugly bargain. If this is true, then there will be a thaw (in relations) soon. If this does not happen in the next 5-10 days, we will have a new diplomatic enemy, and support from Europe will increase significantly. I expect the first, but I am optimistic,” Milovanov wrote on Facebook.

                               Convincing Zelensky to end the war with Russia

Meanwhile, US President’s National Security Advisor Michael Waltz said that he met with Zelensky and persuaded him to end the war with Russia.

“Is this really in the interests of Ukraine? Or in the interests of Europe? It is certainly not in the interests of Russia or the American people for this war to continue forever. So the main part of his conversation was helping President Zelensky understand that this war must end,” Waltz said at a White House briefing.

He noted that Americans do not doubt that US President Donald Trump “can not only deal with Putin but also end this difficult war."

                                        Good technical conversation

Olexander Krayev, an expert at the Ukrainian Prism foreign policy council, calls Keith Kellogg the most pro-Ukrainian official in the new US administration and believes that his visit was successful and that this indicates that negotiations are underway between Ukraine and the US.

“He came to Ukraine to listen to our side of the issues that Russian and US representatives discussed in Saudi Arabia and to discuss with us the final details of the plan that the Trump administration will implement. There was nothing to announce publicly at this stage, so there was no press conference, because, as a rule, this was not a public conversation and especially not a public visit. If he had come to a press conference with Zelensky - after Trump’s words yesterday - they would have been asked only about what Trump said,” Krayev told Deutsche Welle.

Ivan Us, senior adviser to the Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, said that the Ukrainian side and Keith Kellogg had “a good technical conversation,” meaning that Kellogg is gradually getting into the situation and wants to monitor Ukraine’s mood and needs.

“I think the US just wants to monitor, understand what is happening, and then explain the need to continue supporting Ukraine, if possible, at the level of technical representatives,” the expert said.

In his opinion, Trump’s statements are not yet US actions.

“Trump is interested in the important changes that should take place in the world, and he, as they say, will turn everything upside down, and in this context, I also perceive his statement about Ukraine. He seems to be threatening everyone but has not yet reached the point of taking any serious steps. But here no one knows where the line is where Trump will do something,” Ivan Us noted.