US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a highly decorated retired three-star general, to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Keith Kellogg, who is one of the architects of a policy book laying out an “America First” national security agenda for the incoming administration, will come into the role as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third year in February.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social account, saying “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”
Kellogg, an 80 year-old retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defence issues, served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, was chief of staff of the National Security Council and then stepped in as an acting security adviser for Trump after Michael Flynn resigned.
The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before President Joe Biden leaves office in less than months.
Trump has criticised the billions the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine. The incoming Republican president has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies.
As a co-chairman of the American First Policy Institute’s Centre for American Security, Kellogg wrote several of the chapters in the group’s policy book.
In April, he wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.”
Trump's proposed national security adviser Michael Waltz tweeted on Wednesday that “Keith has dedicated his life to defending our great country and is committed to bringing the war in Ukraine to a peaceful resolution.”
Kellogg was a character in multiple Trump investigations dating from his first term. He was among the administration officials who listened in on the July 2019 call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump prodded the Ukrainian leader to pursue investigations into the Bidens.
The call, which Kellogg would later say did not raise any concerns on his end, was at the centre of the first of two House impeachment cases against Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate both times.
On January 6, 2021, hours before pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol, Kellogg, who was then Pence’s national security adviser, listened in on a heated call in which Trump told his vice president to object or delay the certification in Congress of President Joe Biden ’s victory.
He later told House investigators that he recalled Trump saying to Pence words to the effect of: “You’re not tough enough to make the call.”
