Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg is sending tough messages to Kremlin ahead of his Feb. 20 visit with Zelensky. Pressure on Moscow is only “three out of ten” at present, he said.
February 11, 2025
US President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed that his special envoy Keith Kellogg, tasked with ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, will push for a swift end to the war.
A source in President Zelensky’s office told AFP on Monday that Kellogg was scheduled to arrive on Feb. 20.
Trump is ready to double down on sanctions against Russia to bring about an end to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, Kellogg said.
Sanctions enforcement on Russian President Vladimir Putin is “only about a three” on a scale of one to 10, [based] on how painful the economic pressure can be, Kellogg said, as reported by the New York Post. “You could really increase the sanctions, especially the latest sanctions,” he said.
Such threats are a hallmark of the 47th presidential administration so far. In his first three weeks in power, Trump has not only attempted to settle personal vendettas against the government departments that investigated his illegal acts in his first term and stood against his right-wing objectives in the next, but he has also imposed stiff tariffs on countries as part of his “America First” agenda, despite economists’ warnings about the adverse consequences of those taxes on the American economy.
President Joe Biden’s “bumper sticker” policy of claiming to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” without using all the instruments of pressure would end, said Kellogg, who recently sat down with Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, Oksana Markarova, for the first time.
According to “global news platform” Semafor: “Washington has been rife with speculation that the administration would present a plan imminently.” Kellogg denied he would do so at this week’s conference in Munich.
Meanwhile, Zelensky will meet with US Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, where they are set to discuss an end to the three-year war with Russia.
In his nightly address on Monday, Zelensky stressed again:
“It is crucial that we all work together to bring about real peace and effective security guarantees: the security of our people, our state, our economic relations, and, importantly, our resource resilience. Not just for Ukraine, but for the entire free world.”
Last week, Kellogg told right-wing news outlet Newsmax that the only person in the world who can bring an end to the invasion of Ukraine is his newly elected boss.
“The only guy that can do that in the world, and bring this to a conclusion, is Donald J. Trump,” the envoy said.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/46902
So why has Trump stopped the work of the agency that was tracking russian ships transporting oil illegally?
If you know, let me know.
It certainly isn’t helping to sanction mafia land. As Konstantin said, this will give putler time to organise even more of his shadow fleet.
EU’s plan to seize Russia’s shadow tankers: Global fight for environmental security – Lakiichuk
https://global.espreso.tv/russia-ukraine-war-eus-plan-to-seize-russias-shadow-tankers-global-fight-for-environmental-security-lakiichuk
We’ll see how that pans out…
Like I said earlier. Just block the Baltic sea with a few warships. Mafia land will dry up and blow away in a few weeks.
All it takes is a little courage.
Oh my God, there goes the plan…
Maybe this is Danish payback for Trump threatening Greenland, and there is nothing the US can do about the EU protecting its waters.
That might very well be a payback. Let’s hope that, for once, the EU will do the right thing.
They have the orcs worried. The mouthpieces are already threatening war in the Baltics.
Threatening war is all they can do. I hope I’m not hoping for nothing that for once, the West will have a spine and show some teeth.