Trump’s peace envoy to Ukraine-Russia says US ready to double-down on sanctions if Kremlin refuses to end war

U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to unleash more stringent restrictive measures upon Russia if the Kremlin refuses to halt its war in Ukraine, said Keith Kellogg, Washington’s newly appointed peace special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, in an interview with The New York Post.

“You could really increase the sanctions – especially the latest sanctions [targeting oil production and exports],” Kellogg said.

Currently, sanctions against Russia are rated on a scale of 3 out of 10 in terms of economic pressure, he said. Despite the U.S. imposing stricter measures, particularly on Russia’s energy sector, there remains room for further application of pressure.

“And if there’s anybody who understands leverage, it’s President Donald J. Trump, and you can see that with what he’s recently done [in other foreign problem-solving],” Kellogg said.

Kellogg said that Ukraine must continue to keep Russia on the back of its heels with military successes before talks with Russia start. 

He also criticized the strategy of former President Joe Biden, who promised to help Ukraine “as long as it takes, as much as it takes” but failed to ensure proper measures on the Kremlin would follow through..

“That is not a strategy, it’s a bumper sticker,” Kellogg said.

The resolution of the war between Russia and Ukraine, according to Kellogg, should be a team effort, with a comprehensive approach from the entire administration.

“We got the national security team talking about it — the president, vice president, national security adviser, secretaries of State [and] Treasury, National Security Council, working all together,” he said.

Trump remains focused on a “holistic approach” to ending the war, he added.

“And so the pressure just can’t be military. You have to put economic pressure, you have to put diplomatic pressure, some type of military pressures and levers that you’re going to use underneath those to make sure [this goes] where we want it to go,” Kellogg said.