Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, said Russia’s concerns about NATO expanding eastward are “fair.”
As part of his stated conditions foe ending the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly demanded written guarantees from Western countries that NATO will not expand further east, Reuters reported earlier this week.
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Moscow has long argued that Ukraine’s desire to join NATO was one of the main reasons behind its decision to invade.
However, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine began in 2014 – at a time when Ukraine had little realistic chance of joining the alliance anytime soon.
“This is a fair concern,” Kellogg said in an interview with ABC News when asked if President Trump would pledge to stop NATO’s expansion.
“We’ve said many times that Ukraine’s NATO membership is not on the table.” He added that at least four [of 32] other NATO countries also share this view.
Kellogg also urged Ukraine to continue peace talks with Russia, even if Moscow does not provide its proposal for a ceasefire before the next round of negotiations, scheduled for June 2 in Istanbul – a condition Kyiv considers key to deciding on whether to proceed to the next round of talks.
Neither the United States nor Ukraine has seen Russia’s memorandum yet.
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“And I’ve also talked to their [Ukrainian] lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and he hadn’t seen it [memorandum] as well,” Kellogg said. “I cautioned him – don’t say things like that, if you don’t show up – you know, part of life is showing up – you need to show you’re serious [about a ceasefire and ending the war].
Kellogg also confirmed that security advisers from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom will attend the Istanbul meeting.
These countries helped Ukraine create its 22-point proposal during earlier meetings in London and Paris. However, it’s unclear whether these European officials will directly participate in the talks.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey on May 16, which resulted in a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap but failed to produce a ceasefire or other substantive developments. Both sides agreed to work on a memorandum to address the “root causes” of the war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Russia is ready to present its memorandum at the next round of talks on June 2. But Ukraine insists on receiving the document in advance to allow it to prepare its response.
“Words do not work with Moscow. Even the so-called ‘memorandum,’ which they promised and allegedly spent over a week preparing,” Zelensky said in his evening address to the nation on Thursday.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said talks “must yield results,” and for that, Kyiv must understand Russia’s position ahead of time. Ukraine says it has already shared its position with Moscow.
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