Free Republic

Kyiv knows that it will have to recalibrate and take care not to get on Trump’s bad side, hence Zelenskyy’s emphasizing the importance of exploring diplomatic solutions. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser and decorated retired U.S. general, to be his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia has reassured a nervous Kyiv up to a point. Ukrainian officials are familiar with Kellogg, a peace-through-strength advocate who’s argued publicly that any deal to end the nearly three-year-long war of attrition would have to include solid security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure there’s lasting peace...

-snip- "Putin has to be convinced that it's going to be too costly for Russia to continue because he wants to overthrow the government, take over the whole country, and no one has been willing to stop him until now," Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told Newsweek. "It's a matter of putting some credible capability on the table to convince Putin that he has to stop," said Volker, who was Trump's special representative for Ukraine until September 2019. "Therefore, I'm not sure it's a matter of meeting any Russian demands, nor do I think that Zelensky's desire the...

Vladimir Putin will reject Donald Trump's proposed peace plan and would only end the conflict in Ukraine if he gives him huge concessions, a hardliner close to the Kremlin has warned. Russian tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev, who is sanctioned by the West, slammed Trump's recently picked envoy Keith Kellogg and his proposals on how to end the conflict with Kyiv. 'Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we take it and then tell him to screw himself, because we don't like any of it. That'd be the whole negotiation,' Malofeyev said bluntly in an interview from a luxury Dubai resort. -snip-...