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Trump's Ukraine peace envoy plans January trip to Kyiv, European capitals, Reuters reports

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Trump's Ukraine peace envoy plans January trip to Kyiv, European capitals, Reuters reports
Retired General Keith Kellogg, former national security advisor, speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, on Sept. 22, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Trump administration's incoming Ukraine peace envoy, Keith Kellogg, plans to visit Kyiv and several European capitals in early January as part of the new administration’s effort to address the Russia-Ukraine war, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Kellogg, who will serve as President-elect Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, does not intend to travel to Moscow during this trip, the sources said. Instead, he will hold discussions with senior Ukrainian leaders in Kyiv.

Kellogg's team is also arranging meetings in other European cities, including Rome and Paris, though the itinerary remains subject to change, one source added.

The meetings are expected to focus on "fact-finding" to inform the incoming Trump administration, rather than launching formal negotiations, according to the sources. However, the trip signals the urgency Trump has placed on resolving the war in Ukraine.

Trump has pledged to end the war within 24 hours of assuming office, however, he hasn't provided details on how he plans to do it. At his first news conference since winning the election, Trump voiced his intention to make "a little progress" toward peace.

Speaking from Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 16, he called the war "horrible" and underscored the urgent need to bring it to an end. "We’re going to get a little progress. It’s a tough one, it’s a nasty one, it’s nasty."

Former national security and intelligence officials have expressed skepticism, pointing out that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have little incentive to negotiate under conditions acceptable to Kyiv.

Trump’s team seeks ‘permanent end’ to Russia-Ukraine war, national security advisor nominee says
When asked whether the upcoming Trump administration plans to restrict how Ukraine can use U.S. arms, Mike Waltz said that a “blank check... just isn’t a strategy... This just, kind of, forever war that we seem to be backing into.”
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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The Kyiv Independent staff documented what it feels like to live and sleep in Kyiv, Ukraine, as Russia intensifies its drone and missile attacks on the city. Filmed over several weeks in June and July, our journalists take shelter in bathrooms, basements, and parking garages as explosions ring out overhead.

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