Ukraine should have free rein to strike targets in Russia in response to Moscow’s war, President Donald Trump’s former envoy to Kyiv said on Monday.
Invoking his Vietnam war experience, Keith Kellogg told Bloomberg Television that one shouldn’t allow any “sanctuaries” for the opponent in a conflict. Moscow has been hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure before, he said, and Kyiv should strike targets in Russia as it deems necessary.
“Let Ukrainians do what they’ve been very good at,” Kellogg said in an interview on the sidelines of the Warsaw Security Forum. Russia isn’t winning the war, and is just dragging it out, he said.
Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general, served as Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine until the end of last year. His remarks stand in stark contrast with the US president’s call on Kyiv over the weekend to halt air strikes on refineries in Russia. It’s become Ukraine’s most effective strategy to degrade the key source of funding for Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
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Kellogg dismissed Trump’s statements — including his suggestion that Zelenskyy should consider stepping aside as Ukraine’s president — as “noise.” The US president’s former envoy said he didn’t expect the latest spat to escalate to anything similar to their infamous face to face argument in the Oval Office in February last year.
“I think what’s happening is a couple of world leaders - I think they are basically kind of alike,” Kellogg said. “You know, they’re both kind of stubborn, they both speak their mind.”
The latest outburst was sparked by Trump’s controversial deal with President Vladimir Putin to release Russian diesel into global markets as the US president seeks ways to lower energy prices ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 3. Kellogg said the deal wasn’t good for Putin and won’t have any palpable impact on the market.
“He’s trying to capitalize on elections coming up in the US, he’s trying to capitalize on President Trump right now,” he said. “And most people see through it.”
Putin is responding from a position of weakness, not strength, Kellogg said, citing estimates that Russia has already incurred between 1.2 and 1.5 million casualties, losses that dwarf those suffered by the Soviet Union during its decade-long war in Afghanistan.
“The rhetoric will kind of take care of itself,” he said. “Look at what’s happening on the ground.”