Key points
- US could particularly target Russian energy sector
- Moscow, Kyiv will have to make concessions: US envoy
- Negotiations not off the table: official
ISLAMABAD: United States (US) Special Envoy to Russia and Ukraine Keith Kellogg has said the US plans to step up pressure on Russia through sanctions to end the war in Ukraine.
Keith Kellogg said there was a lot of room to increase sanctions on Russia, particularly in Russia’s energy sector, during an interview with the New York Post.
He characterised sanctions enforcement on Russia as “only about a 3” on a scale of 1 to 10 on “how painful the economic pressure can be.”
The envoy said both Moscow and Kyiv will have to make concessions to end the brutal war.
Kellogg also was critical of the approach by the administration of former President Joe Biden of “supporting Ukraine as long as it takes,” calling it “a bumper sticker, not a strategy.”
“Holistic approach”
According to VOA, Kellogg said the Trump administration was focused on a “holistic approach” to ending the war, combining support for Ukraine with increased pressure on Russia.
Kellogg’s Chief of Staff Ludovic Hood echoed those sentiments when he told the GLOBSEC Transatlantic Forum in Washington on Thursday, “Nothing’s off the table at this stage” as far as negotiations for a peace deal.
Telephonic contact
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s presidential website reported the US special envoy also spoke Thursday with Ukraine’s head of the office of the president, Andriy Yermak.
In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said the two discussed Kellogg’s upcoming visit to Ukraine, as well as the situation on the front lines and security issues for Ukrainian civilians.
The statement said the two gave “special attention” in their conversation to the upcoming Munich Security Conference, scheduled to begin in one week, VOA reported.
