Former Trump special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg accused the current US negotiating team of treating the war in Ukraine as a business transaction rather than a geopolitical conflict with existential stakes. Kellogg pointed to the influence of Russian sovereign wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriev, whose promises of "trillions of dollars" he said have skewed American negotiators' perspective.
Speaking on PBS NewsHour's Compass Points, as "Hvylya" reports, Kellogg drew a sharp line between his own approach and that of current lead negotiator Steve Witkoff, whom he described as viewing the situation through a businessman's lens. Hvylya published the full transcript of the conversation.
The former envoy was responding in part to the US decision to abstain on a UN General Assembly resolution supporting lasting peace in Ukraine. Kellogg reacted on X with a post that read: "Isn't four years of war enough? Isn't missing children, shelling of cities, and the killing of innocents enough? It is not a business deal. It is war."
Asked directly whether the US team treats the conflict as a business deal, Kellogg did not hesitate: "I think they always have. I think that is an error." He argued the war is fundamentally "a game of wills" rooted in great power politics and spheres of influence - not a transaction to be negotiated in commercial terms. The economic promises from Russia's side, Kellogg said, are not credible: "When he starts talking like trillions of dollars are available, which I don't believe."
Kellogg contrasted this with what he described as America's strategic position, arguing Washington should leverage its unmatched strength to force Putin to end the war rather than seek a mutually profitable arrangement. He compared the approach to poker: "If you go all in, the other side doesn't know - do you really have the cards or not?"
The critique carries particular weight given that Kellogg served as Trump's envoy for nearly a year before departing in December 2025, telling the Kyiv Independent he left specifically to be "much more open and free to talk about Ukraine" from the outside. His remarks echo broader concerns about the administration's national security strategy voiced by other former officials.