US presidential envoy Keith Kellogg said that the placement of foreign forces in western Ukraine is being discussed as part of a potential settlement to Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Fox news reported on 13 May.

Western countries, led by the UK and France, planned earlier a large peacekeeping contingent for Ukraine, with estimates ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 troops, to monitor borders and deter further aggression in the event of a ceasefire.

Speaking on Fox News, Kellogg said that the United States primarily advocates for a “comprehensive ceasefire.” This would be followed by negotiations on other issues including the status of certain territories, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the return of Ukrainian children, and Ukraine’s NATO membership prospects.

“We are talking about a ‘resilience force’… This involves the British, French, as well as Germans, and now the Poles, who will place forces west of the Dnipro River, which means they are beyond Russia’s reach,” Trump’s envoy said.

According to Kellogg, “peacekeeping forces” involving a third country could be deployed east of the Dnipro “to effectively monitor the ceasefire.”

Refusing to send troops to Ukraine remains a consistent position of the current Polish leadership, making it unclear what exactly the US presidential envoy meant.

Earlier reports indicated that Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg will travel to Istanbul, where negotiations between Ukraine and Russia might take place on 15 May.

Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak said that if Putin refuses to come to Türkiye, it will be “the final signal” of Russia’s unwillingness to end the war.

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