Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, suggested British and French troops could adopt zones of control in the country, in an interview with The Times newspaper published yesterday.
Kellogg suggested they could have areas of responsibility west of the Dnipro River, as part of a “reassurance force,” with a demilitarized zone separating them from Russian-occupied areas in the east.
“You could almost make it look like what happened with Berlin after World War II, when you had a Russian zone, a French zone, and a British zone, a US zone,” he said, later clarifying on X that the US would not be providing troops.
Photo: REUTERS
“You’re west of the [Dnipro], which is a major obstacle,” Kellogg said, adding that the force would therefore “not be provocative at all” to Russia.
He suggested that a demilitarized zone could be implemented along the existing lines of control in eastern Ukraine, The Times said.
A retired lieutenant general and former acting national security adviser during Trump’s first term, Kellogg, 80, said Ukraine was big enough to accommodate several armies enforcing a ceasefire.
To make sure that British, French, Ukrainian and other allied forces do not exchange fire with Russian troops, a buffer zone would be needed, Kellogg said.
“You look at a map and you create, for lack of a better term, a demilitarized zone [DMZ],” he said.
“You have a ... DMZ that you can monitor, and you’ve got this... no-fire zone,” Kellogg said.
However, “now, are there going to be violations? Probably, because there always are, but your ability to monitor that is easy,” he added.
Kellogg admitted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “might not accept” the proposal.
Kellogg later clarified his position on X.
“I was speaking of a post-ceasefire resiliency force in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty. In discussions of partitioning, I was referencing areas or zones of responsibility for an allied force (without US troops). I was NOT referring to a partitioning of Ukraine,” he said.
The UK and France are spearheading talks among a 30-nation “coalition of the willing” on potentially deploying forces to Ukraine to shore up any ceasefire Trump might strike.
London and Paris describe the possible deployment as a “reassurance force” aimed at offering Ukraine some kind of security guarantee.
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