WASHINGTON — U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said Sunday that a negotiated end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine was “really, really close,” but that Moscow and Washington remained divided over two core issues: territorial settlement, primarily the future of the Donbas, and the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Kellogg, who is due to step down in January, told the Reagan National Defense Forum that talks were in “the last 10 metres,” a phase he said is always the hardest. “If we get those two issues settled, I think the rest of the things will work out fairly well,” he said at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
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The comments come after Russian President Vladimir Putin met last week for four hours with two of former President Donald Trump’s envoys — real estate investor Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser Jared Kushner — whom the Kremlin says are drafting a possible deal. Kremlin foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Sunday that the talks had touched on “territorial problems” and that Washington would need to “make serious, I would say, radical changes to their papers.” Ushakov did not specify what changes Moscow wanted.
Territorial claims hinge on the Donbas — the Donetsk and Luhansk regions — which Moscow asserts largely as its own, though Ukraine still controls at least 5,000 square kilometers there and almost all countries recognize the region as part of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said surrendering remaining parts of Donetsk without a referendum would be illegal and could provide a platform for further Russian advances.
Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general, described the human cost of the conflict as “horrific,” saying Russia and Ukraine together have suffered more than 2 million casualties, including the dead and wounded. Neither government publishes comprehensive, verifiable casualty figures. Russia currently controls about 19.2% of Ukrainian territory, including annexed Crimea, nearly all of Luhansk, more than 80% of Donetsk, and large parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
The disclosures follow the leak last month of a set of 28 U.S. draft peace proposals that alarmed Ukrainian and European officials. Critics said the draft appeared to concede key Russian demands on NATO, Russian control of parts of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine’s armed forces.
Separately, the Kremlin welcomed a revision in the U.S. national security strategy that removed language describing Russia as a “direct threat,” saying the softer tone that calls for limited cooperation on strategic stability issues was a “positive step,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.
The developments come as violence continues on and near the battlefield. Russian forces launched an overnight airstrike on infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, cutting power and water services, Kremenchuk Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi wrote on social media. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 77 Ukrainian drones launched overnight over seven regions of southern and central Russia and over Russian-occupied Crimea.
President Zelensky said he held a long, “substantive” phone call with Witkoff and Kushner, and the Kremlin has indicated Kushner may play a leading role in drafting any deal. For now, the two main sticking points — Donbas territory and the Zaporizhzhia plant — remain unresolved.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
