KYIV: President Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia said on Friday that he had held “extensive and positive discussions” with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the three-year war with Russia and praised the Ukrainian leader as an “embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”.
Retired US Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg — who travelled to Kyiv on Wednesday and whose planned news conference with Zelenskyy on Thursday was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity — struck a positive tone after what he said on the social platform X was “a long and intense day” of talks with Ukraine’s senior leadership.
His comments marked a departure from recent rebukes of Zelenskyy by Trump and other senior US officials that appeared to indicate an abrupt deterioration of relations. Trump called Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” and warned him that he’d “better move fast” to negotiate an end to the war or risk not having a nation to lead.