Keith Kellogg, Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia appointed by former President Donald Trump, said that the United States is ready to discuss Russia’s demand to stop NATO’s expansion eastward.
In an interview with ABC News published on 29 May, Kellogg said this position could be part of a larger peace agreement aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
“That’s one of the issues that Russia will bring up,” Kellogg told ABC News. “They’re not just talking Ukraine – they’re talking the country of Georgia, they’re talking Moldova, they’re talking, obviously, Ukraine. And we’re saying ‘Okay, comprehensively, you know, we can stop the expansion of NATO coming close to your border’. That’s security concerns from them.”
Kellogg confirmed that Trump is willing to offer such a guarantee to Russian President Vladimir Putin if it becomes a condition for ceasefire.
After three months of attemps to make a deal with Russia over the war in Ukraine, Trump has warned recently that he would withdrew from the peace negotiations.Trump also said on 29 May he would determine within “about two weeks” whether Putin is serious.“We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently,” Trump told reporters.
The US special envoy also said Ukraine’s accession to NATO is not currently under consideration. “We’ve said that, to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table,” Kellogg said.
According to the interview, security advisers from the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom will take part in the next round of ceasefire negotiations in Istanbul on 2 June. These officials had already helped draft a 22-point Ukrainian memorandum during meetings in London and Paris. Kellogg confirmed their involvement in Istanbul.
He said the main aim is to reach agreement on a full ceasefire. “We have to compare the Ukrainian and Russian proposals, identify areas of possible agreement, and determine which topics are not subject to compromise,” he said. “Let’s see what we come up with during the meeting in Istanbul.”
However, Moscow has not yet sent its official response. Kellogg said that neither the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, nor Ukrainian Defense Minister and chief negotiator Rustem Umerov has received the Russian version of the memorandum.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised Trump during a phone call that he would provide the Russian memorandum within one week, Kellogg told ABC News.
The proposed ceasefire would apply on land, in the air, and at sea. It would also aim to protect civilian infrastructure.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Ukraine’s future membership in NATO remains irreversible. However, he also said that it would not be part of any peace agreement with Russia.
On 28 May, Czech President Petr Pavel said that Ukraine is unlikely to be invited into NATO in the near future. He linked this partly to Trump’s position.
Ukraine has persistently pursued NATO membership since 2008, with its parliament officially adopting it as a strategic objective in 2017 and embedding it in the constitution in 2019. Despite Russia’s aggression, Ukraine has continued to seek an invitation to join NATO, an alliance that would guarantee its security against further Russian aggression.