Keith Kellogg, Washington’s Ukraine envoy, refuted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s claim that he agreed to pressure Ukraine into not firing into Russia.
Kellogg visited Moscow’s ally Belarus on June 21, a visit which resulted in the release of political prisoners, including opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski.
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Lukashenko claimed that during his conversation with Kellogg, he told the latter that Moscow would comply with the US’s ceasefire call if Ukraine stops hitting Russia, particularly with Western missiles, to which Kellogg supposedly agreed.
“[Russian leader] Vladimir Putin and I had discussed this problem before, it is not the first time the issue was raised. Putin is right when he says: ‘Listen, we support it, we are not against it, we do not want American, British, French and German missiles to hit our cities,’” Lukashenko said, as quoted by Belarusian state media on Monday.
“Let the West ask their proxy, [President Volodymyr] Zelensky, to stop striking Russia. Then we’ll agree,” Lukashenko added. “This is the position I conveyed to the Americans. I do not see anything wrong with that. The US representative said they will work on that.”
Kellogg refuted the claim on X on Monday, saying that he did not make comments on how Ukraine should fight the war and the quote was “taken out of context.”
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“This quote is taken out of context. In my conversation with Lukashenko we discussed a full and unconditional cease fire [sic],” Kellogg wrote.
“Any limitation on Kyiv’s conduct was conditional on reciprocal action by Moscow. At no point did I make comments related to Ukraine’s prosecution of the war outside of a total ceasefire,” he added.
While the details of his meeting with Lukashenko were not publicized, Kellogg said on X a day after the meeting that the two “discussed the RU-UKR War” and how US President Donald Trump “is pushing hard to stop the war and end the killing.”
The meeting resulted in the release of 14 political prisoners held by Minsk, including those from Japan and Poland.
Trump had vowed to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine before his re-election and delegated part of the task to Kellogg to engage with the warring parties.
The Trump administration’s goal has been to achieve a ceasefire by engaging with both Kyiv and Moscow, but to no avail thus far as Moscow continues to reject the call by naming new demands.
Kellogg, considered the more hawkish White House representative among those engaged in the mediation process, has recently accused Moscow of stalling the talks.
Kyiv and Europe have been asking the Trump administration to step up sanctions on Moscow in an effort to pressure the latter into negotiating, as existing efforts have yielded no fruitful results.
But State Secretary Marco Rubio said Washington feared more sanctions could alienate Moscow, though he did not rule out the possibility of eventually doing so.
A senior US official, in line with Rubio’s earlier comments, also said the Trump administration has not lifted any sanctions placed on Russia by the Biden administration.
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