General Keith Kellogg, US President Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, has claimed that The Times misrepresented his comments in an exclusive interview published on 11 April, where the newspaper portrayed him as suggesting Ukraine could be partitioned “almost like Berlin after World War Two” as part of a peace deal with Russia.
In the article headlined “Trump envoy: We can divide Ukraine like postwar Berlin,” The Times quoted Kellogg as proposing that British and French troops could adopt zones of control in western Ukraine as part of a “reassurance force,” with Russian forces remaining in the occupied east, separated by Ukrainian forces and a demilitarized zone.
The 80-year-old envoy reportedly told The Times that an Anglo-French-led force west of the Dnipro river, which bisects Ukraine from north to south and runs through Kyiv, would “not be provocative at all” to Moscow, suggesting Ukraine was large enough to accommodate several armies enforcing a ceasefire.
“You could almost make it look like what happened with Berlin after World War Two, when you had a Russian zone, a French zone, and a British zone, a US zone,” Kellogg was quoted as saying in the interview.
The Times reported that he elaborated on forces being “west of the [Dnipro], which is a major obstacle,” while clarifying that America would not provide any ground forces. The article stated that Kellogg suggested implementing a demilitarized zone of 18 miles along existing lines of control in the east.
According to The Times, implicit in Kellogg’s proposals was the acknowledgement that Ukraine would have to cede its eastern territories currently under Russian control.
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, an outspoken critic of the current Russian regime, criticized Kellogg’s comparison cited by The Times, stating, “If there are any parallels with WWII, it’s the [1939] division of Poland [by Nazi Germany and the USSR] rather than Berlin.” He also questioned Kellogg, asking, “Is playing a Mafia messenger boy to stay in the Boss’s favor worth throwing your well-earned reputation into the toilet for the rest of your life?”
Kellogg’s denial
Following the publication, Kellogg wrote on X:
“The Times article misrepresents what I said. I was speaking of a post-cease fire resiliency force in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty. In discussions of partitioning, I was referencing areas or zones of responsibility for an allied force (without US troops). I was NOT referring to a partitioning of Ukraine,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to press its maximalist demands, which effectively amount to Ukraine’s capitulation. Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that the Kremlin would not accept peacekeeping troops from any NATO country “under any conditions.”
The Times interview was published as Steven Witkoff, described as Trump’s de facto Russia envoy, traveled to Russia on 11 April to discuss a ceasefire deal, meeting with President Putin in St. Petersburg.
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