According to Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Russia has legitimate concerns about NATO’s eastern enlargement, and he stressed that the United States does not want Ukraine to join the military alliance – reported Deutsche Welle.
When asked by the American broadcaster ABC News what he thought of Russia wanting a written promise that NATO would not expand eastward towards Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said the following: “This is a legitimate concern.”
“We have made it clear that on our part Ukraine’s NATO accession is not on the agenda, and we are not alone in this. But the Russians will continue to keep this issue on the agenda,” he opined. He emphasised that, in addition to Ukraine, the NATO accession of Georgia and Moldova has also been raised, and it is within Trump’s authority to decide what the American position is on these matters.
According to Kellogg, as the first step in the peace negotiations they will try to combine the two memoranda drawn up by Ukraine and Russia into a single document. He added that the national security advisers of Germany, France and the United Kingdom will join the United States in discussing the memorandum; the talks will begin on Monday in Türkiye.
