Russia's mass attack shows Kremlin not interested in ending war diplomatically, Trump's Ukraine envoy says
Russia appears to be escalating the war against Ukraine rather than pursuing a negotiated peace settlement, Special Envoy Keith Kellogg said on Sept. 7, hours after Russia launched a record-breaking drone and missile attack against Ukraine.
Russia targeted Ukraine with over 800 Shahed-type drones overnight on Sept. 7, injuring over 40 people across the country and striking the Cabinet of Ministers building in central Kyiv. The attack marks Russia's largest drone strike of the full-scale war.
Kellogg, U.S. President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine, responded to the attack on social media.
"The danger in any war is escalation," he wrote on X.
"Russia appears to be escalating with the largest attack of the war hitting offices of the (Ukrainian) Cabinet in Kyiv. ... History shows events can escalate out of control through actions as these. It is why President Trump is working to stop this war."
Kellogg pointed out that he had stood inside the targeted Cabinet building only two weeks earlier, when he visited Kyiv in honor of Ukraine's Independence Day.
"The attack was not a signal that Russia wants to diplomatically end this war," he said.
The Trump administration has been pushing to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow since Trump took office in January, with minimal results. Trump's Aug. 8 deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to impose a ceasefire passed without any consequences, and the Aug. 15 Trump-Putin summit in Alaska also failed to yield a ceasefire.
While Kyiv's European allies work to hammer out a framework for postwar security guarantees, Russia continues to bombard Ukrainian cities and Putin refuses to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Other U.S. officials, including Trump himself, expressed some willingness to amplify pressure on Russia the morning after the latest mass attack. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. was prepared to expand secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil.
Trump told reporters he was ready to move into a new phase of sanctions against Russia, though he declined to provide details.
In his nightly address on Sept. 7, Zelensky said Ukraine is "counting on a strong reaction from America" in the wake of Russia's attack.
The Trump administration's approach to negotiating peace in Ukraine has thus far involved minimal consequences and no additional sanctions for Russia, though Trump has suspended or cut military aid to Ukraine multiple times.
