A protest against the Trump administration’s policies on the National Mall in Washington, DC, 5 April 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE / WILL OLIVER
The US special presidential envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has suggested that the country could be split “almost like Berlin after World War II” in the event of a ceasefire, in an interview he gave to The Times that was published on Friday.
Kellogg proposed dividing Ukraine into three zones of control, one in the west of the country to host a Franco-British “reassurance force”, a Russian-occupied zone in the country’s east and a Ukrainian administered demilitarised zone along the Dnipro River in the centre of the country.
Shortly after the interview’s publication, however, Kellogg took to X to insist that his comments had been misinterpreted and that he had been describing zones of responsibility for a “reassurance force” to be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, rather than the political division of the country.
In his interview, Kellogg also said that diplomatic ties between Washington and Kyiv were “back on track”, noting that a team of Ukrainian officials had arrived in Washington to resume negotiations towards a mineral deal, which had stalled since Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky’s ill-fated White House visit in February.
Kellogg contrasted Ukraine’s position on a ceasefire agreement with Russia’s, saying that while Ukraine had so far shown “maximum compliance” with the proposals under discussion, he expected Russia to make a fresh set of demands “in the near term”.
His comments come amid a renewed American effort to engage Russia in ceasefire talks. As Steven Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, met with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Friday, US President Donald Trump simultaneously urged Russia to “get moving”, writing on his Truth Social platform that too many people were dying “in a terrible and senseless war”.
However, key questions remain about Moscow’s current willingness to begin peace negotiations in earnest. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s top military commander said that Russian forces had begun a spring offensive in northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions, while Russia has continued to strike Ukrainian cities on a daily basis in recent weeks.
