Daughter of ex-Trump envoy Kellogg pushes back on father's call to conscript Ukrainian women

Ukrainian women should be encouraged to join the military, but not be forced to, said Meaghan Mobbs, a president of an aid-providing NGO and daughter of the former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

In a Sept. 6 interview with public news outlet Suspilne, Mobbs came out against comments her father made in August, where he said he supports mobilizing Ukrainian women into the military.

"People sometimes think that my dad and I are always exactly in the same mind. Not in this case," Mobbs said.

"His frame of reference is from my experience in Afghanistan. My mom was born in Afghanistan. So, if women can fight, why not?"

Mobbs previously served military tours in Afghanistan. She is now the president of the R.T. Weatherman Foundation, which provides direct assistance to soldiers serving in Ukraine and their families.

"Where I disagree... They should volunteer to fight," Mobbs said.

She pointed out that serving does not just mean fighting from a trench, and that there are a broad range of roles, some of which she thinks women are especially well-placed to serve in, suc as intelligence or medical support.

Mobbs nevertheless said that women are also often good shooters and excellent at handling weapons.

"Men and women are different. And this is normal. We have to accept this reality," Mobbs said.

"(But) we have to involve women volunteers in the roles for which they are best suited, and encourage other women to join."

"I don't think that right now, in the interests of Ukraine, we have to forcefully mobilize women," Mobbs said.

In her work advocating for foreign soldiers serving in Ukraine, Mobbs also advocates for making it easier to acquire Ukrainian citizenship.

"I know a lot of foreigners who would love to get Ukrainian citizenship. But the path to this is quite difficult now," Mobbs said.

"A lot of them are dating Ukrainian women, getting married to Ukrainian women," which Mobbs calls "a fantastic thing because you create more Ukrainian babies."

"If you have a mixed family where a foreign volunteer marries a Ukrainian woman, and they have a baby, it's only a plus for Ukraine because it develops the economy, it improves the demography," Mobbs said.

Hopeful about Witkoff-Kushner visit

Mobbs' interview was released hours ahead of an expected visit of U.S peace negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Kyiv – their first trip to the Ukrainian capital in that capacity.  

"My hope, my wish, and desire is that Witkoff and Kushner come here and realize how wrong they were, that they didn't understand and couldn't appreciate the resilience of the Ukrainian people," Mobbs said.

"From my experience, when Americans come to Ukraine, they can change their views."

A recent example is right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who shifted from promoting Russian propaganda to loudly advocating for Kyiv's cause and who visited Ukraine in July 2026.

Mobbs hopes that the U.S. will end up doing more to help Ukraine in "the first truly good-to-evil war that we've seen," from boosting sanctions to allowing Kyiv to use Starlink on Russian territory.

"It doesn't matter if you are a MAGA, a Republican, or a Democrat. We should all be for the cause of Ukraine," she said.