Kellogg: US seeks Russian "terms sheet" to advance peace plan

Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, said the United States is now waiting to receive a formal list of peace terms from Russia after already obtaining such a document from Ukraine. 

The goal, he explained, is to bring both proposals together and move toward a negotiated settlement to end the war.

Speaking on Fox News, Kellogg explained: “When President Trump spoke to President Putin a little over a week ago, the Russians said they were going to produce what they call a memorandum. It's what I call a 'terms sheet'. A list of conditions means this is how we're going to come to peace. We got that from the Ukrainian side. We need to get it from the Russian side. Then you bring them together. And you say, okay, what does this look like? What's unacceptable, what's acceptable?”

According to Kellogg, the next step would involve organising another round of high-level talks, with the aim of achieving a final, signed agreement.

“We would like to hold it at the Vatican. And we are quite prepared to do something like that, but the Russians didn't want to go to the Vatican. So I think Geneva could be the next stop, and then you end up going somewhere where all three major leaders of all parties gather,” he said. “You get President [Trump], President Putin, President Zelenskyy together and work it out and come to some kind of signed document that will end this war.”

The first round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine under this new diplomatic effort took place on May 16 in Istanbul, following a May 11 proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to resume negotiations. Ukraine agreed to participate in response to a call from US President Donald Trump, who urged Kyiv to “immediately accept” Putin’s offer.

Before this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had made clear that a 30-day ceasefire was a precondition for restarting dialogue with Moscow.

Following the Istanbul meeting, both delegations agreed on several concrete steps: a large-scale prisoner exchange on a 1,000-for-1,000 basis, the preparation of detailed ceasefire frameworks by each side, and a commitment to continue the negotiation process.

Russian presidential aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said Moscow was satisfied with the results of the talks.

The prisoner swap was completed on May 26.

By Tamilla Hasanova