Photo: EPA-EFE/SHAWN THEW / POOL
US President Donald Trump’s long-awaited plan to end the war in Ukraine is set to be presented to world leaders at next week’s Munich Security Conference in Germany, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg said the plan would be presented by Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, who confirmed on Monday that he would be attending the conference, which runs between 14–16 February.
“I look forward to speaking about Donald Trump’s goal to end the bloody and costly war in Ukraine. I’ll meet with America’s allies who are ready to work with us” Kellogg wrote on X.
While Bloomberg’s sources did not specify how detailed any discussions would be or the exact format they would take, recent comments by Kellogg and other Trump administration officials have hinted at a “peace through strength” approach, it said.
Kellogg, who has previously spoken of resolving the war within the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, told Fox News last week that the Trump team had a “good, solid plan” for negotiations with Moscow and Kyiv and that he had faith in Trump’s ability as a “great dealmaker” to bring hostilities to an end.
However, with much of the international community still reeling from Trump’s announcement on Tuesday of a shockingly illegal, impractical and totally uncosted plan for the US to “own” Gaza, few experts hold out much hope that Trump’s team will propose any new solutions to the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine reported on Tuesday that Kellogg would visit Kyiv after the Munich Conference, in a trip initially due to take place before Trump took office in January but that was subsequently postponed.
Trump is thought to favour a freezing of the war along its current frontlines, which would effectively mean Ukraine ceding the territory currently occupied by Russian forces to Moscow, or approximately 20% of sovereign Ukrainian territory.
Trump himself reiterated on Monday that Washington was in contact with both Moscow and Kyiv and had had “very constructive” initial talks with both sides.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday that Moscow was ready for “hard bargaining” with the US on ending the war, but that Washington should make the first move and that any negotiations should “take into account the realities ‘on the ground’” as well as Russia’s national interests, which he said were “predetermined by history and geography”.
In a further sign of the growing resolve to negotiate an end to the almost three-year long war on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that he would be prepared to negotiate with Vladimir Putin in person if that turned out to be “the only way to achieve peace for Ukrainians”.
