The conflict between Kiev and Moscow is close to a ceasefire, US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, has said. He stressed that both sides would need to make concessions.
Speaking to Fox Business on Wednesday, Kellogg said that Trump has been “frustrated” with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.
The diplomat, nevertheless, said that he remained optimistic that Trump’s team would negotiate an end to the conflict. “I really believe we are on the precipice of getting to a ceasefire,” he said. “Neither side is going to get everything they want.”
“What we want to have is a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire. Once you get there, it’s going to be really hard to restart the war,” Kellogg said. “What we need is what I would call term sheets – this is what the Russians want, this is what the Ukrainians want – and bring them together.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Kiev has been violating the US-brokered moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure on a daily basis. According to the MOD, the Ukrainian troops launched drone and missile attacks on fuel depots, gas facilities, and the elements of Russia’s power grid.
During his phone call with Trump on March 18, Putin said that, for a comprehensive ceasefire to succeed, Ukraine must stop mobilization, while Western countries must stop military aid to Kiev.
Moscow has stressed that any future settlement must address the “root causes” of the conflict, including the expansion of NATO eastward. Russia has demanded that Ukraine officially drop its plans to join the US-led alliance and renounce claims on Crimea and four other regions that became part of Russia after 2014.
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