[President-elect Donald Trump’s soon-to-be national security adviser, Mike Waltz, is weighing several proposals to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, including one from General Keith Kellogg, who Trump announced as his pick to be special envoy to the countries.
Waltz has been reviewing a plan from Kellogg, which calls for continued US military aid to Ukraine to be conditioned on Kyiv participating in peace talks with Russia and a formal US policy to seek a ceasefire and negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict. The plan also suggests putting off Ukraine’s desire to join NATO for an extended period to draw Russia to the table.
Another proposal being floated is to allow Russia to keep the territory it holds now in exchange for Ukraine getting NATO membership, although few people in Trump’s orbit appear eager to invite Ukraine into NATO anytime soon.
Trump has previously claimed that the Russia-Ukraine war would not have started if he had been president and vowed to end the war, sometimes claiming he would stop the years-long conflict before taking office. However, his team’s strategy for ending the war is still being worked out, and sources caution that it is “too early” to say what the Trump team’s ultimate strategy will look like.
Trump has also expressed support for the creation of “autonomous regions” inside Ukraine, a proposal endorsed by his former ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell. Grenell has not explained in detail what that would look like, but sources say it could involve Russia keeping the territory it currently holds in exchange for Ukraine getting NATO membership.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that his country must do everything to ensure the war ends next year through diplomatic means, but he has also lambasted the idea of implementing a ceasefire without security guarantees first from the West.
Zelensky met with Trump in September and told reporters that “I believe that President Trump really wants a quick decision” to end the war. “He [Trump] wants this war to be finished. We all want to end this war, but a fair ending…. If it is very fast, it’s going to be a loss for Ukraine.”
Trump’s allies tapped to serve in top national security roles have already signaled publicly that the President-elect is considering a range of options to bring both Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, including some that appear to contradict his previously stated views on the conflict.
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