US President Donald Trump's envoy for Ukraine and Russia said on Wednesday that the United States understands the need for security guarantees for Ukraine, as he visited the country for talks with Ukrainian officials.
General Keith Kellogg told reporters in Kiev that he was in Ukraine "to listen" to the concerns of Ukrainian leaders and to return to the United States to consult with President Trump.
Kellogg said the United States wants the war in Ukraine to end, saying it would be good for the region and the world.
The talks come amid a surge in diplomatic efforts focused on Russia's war in Ukraine, including French President Emmanuel Macron hosting European leaders on Wednesday for a second round of talks about the conflict and European support for Ukraine.
Kellogg also met earlier this week with European leaders, and on Tuesday US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia.
Secretary Rubio said that both Ukraine and Russia will have to make concessions to achieve peace.
"The goal is to end this conflict in a way that is fair, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved," Rubio told reporters. No Ukrainian or European officials were at the table for the talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opposed being excluded from the meeting, a position that drew criticism from US President Donald Trump.
"Today I heard, 'Well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years," President Trump said of Ukraine's leaders. "You should never have started it."
Russia began the war with its full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Speaking to reporters at his Florida residence, President Trump said he thought there was a "good chance" of ending the war. But Zelenskyy has said his country will not agree to a US-Russia dictated resolution to the conflict.
Zelenskyy postponed a trip to Saudi Arabia that had been planned for this week, suggesting he wanted to avoid linking his visit to the negotiations.
The United States and Russia agreed to "designate appropriate high-level teams to begin work on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. Bruce characterized the meeting as "an important step forward" toward peace.
Rubio said Ukraine and European countries would need to be included in talks to end the war. He said that if the war stopped, the United States would have "tremendous opportunities ... to partner" with Russia on trade and other global issues.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she and other European foreign ministers spoke with Secretary Rubio after the US-Russia meeting and she expressed support for a Ukraine-led resolution.
“Russia will try to divide us. Let us not fall into their traps,” Kallas said in X. “Working together with the US, we can achieve a just and lasting peace – on Ukraine’s terms.”
Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory in 2014, including the Crimean peninsula that it unilaterally annexed in 2014, a large part of eastern Ukraine that pro-Russian separatists seized in subsequent fighting, and land that Russia has taken since the 2012 invasion.
When the invasion began, Moscow hoped for a quick takeover of all of Ukraine. But with fierce Ukrainian resistance, the war instead evolved into a fierce ground conflict and daily aerial bombardments by each side.
Zelenskyy has long called for his country's 2014 borders to be restored, but US officials have said that is unrealistic, as was Kiev's long-sought goal of joining NATO./ VOA (A2 Televizion)
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