Now its Kellogg’s turn

No, not the breakfast cereal, but still soggy

Retired US General, Keith Kellogg, who was born just before D-Day, is Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine. Don’t be fooled by the vanished stars on his long-ago uniform. If you are looking for a professional military strategist, what you get is a Trump loyalist and an America First believer, through and through. I wrote about the essay on plans for a Ukraine peace that he co-wrote for “Project 2025,” a Trumpian think tank, in an earlier column. ^[1] I didn’t find the essay confidence-inspiring.

But the Munich security conference provided an opportunity for a second-look at this self-proclaimed “realist.” He took part in a roundtable discussion on “Peace through Strength: A Plan for Ukraine.” ^[2]

At every turn he dodged direct questions from the moderator. Instead of saying whether or not Europe would be at the peace table for talks on Ukraine, he instead suggested Europe would have “input” in a three-way conversation between the warring parties and Donald Trump as mediator—god help us. Then he took up some air time explaining how Putin was afraid of Trump and did nothing during Trump’s first administration (conveniently forgetting Russia’s role in supporting Syria and its efforts to use a mercenary army to extend its influence in Africa, quite apart from its interference in the election that brought Trump to power in 2016).

When asked what concessions the US would try to force from Putin on peace talks, he took his time then offered nothing concrete. Instead, he turned to an attack on Europe for its past failures to rearm sufficiently. He stumbled over mention of territorial concessions, perhaps forgetting that the question was not about what Ukraine would need to give up.

He talked about breaking Russian alliances with its axis partners—North Korea, Iran, China. That’s going to be the concession? Really? He mixed up a question about sanctions. Eventually he suggested that there would be sanctions against Russian oil. Aren’t there already? Even if oil sanctions were stepped up and enforcement strengthened, how long would that take to have real effect? He offered only generalities and platitudes. Is this guy just too old for the job? Trying too hard to be something he isn’t—a politician?

Judge for yourself, but I think any objective observer of this roundtable would come to the conclusion that ex-General Kellogg was, by far, the least impressive person with a mic. That’s deeply worrying, given his role. The others on the Roundtable were the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Ukraine, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland, the Foreign Secretary from the UK, and the Minister of National Defence of Lithuania. All took a tougher line against Putin, all had a stronger message of support for Ukraine. The Lithuanian Defence Minister, Dovile Sakaliene, was stronger on the need for military “muscle” to confront Putin and his imperial ambitions than was Kellogg. The UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy reminded the audience that it would be important to continue to advance Ukraine’s membership in NATO.

Towards the end of the audience Q and A, retired general Kellogg managed to dodge a question from a Romanian delegate about America’s support for far-right parties in Europe. He said it was Europe’s problem.

As for the sub-title of the roundtable, “A Plan for Ukraine,” well, there doesn’t seem to be one. As David Lammy said, “we are talking about talks about negotiations.” ^[3] Kellogg reminded everyone that decisions on peace negotiations would be made by Trump. He’s just a Trump whisperer.

That’s reassuring. Not.

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^[1] Wesley Wark, “Time to Read up on the Trump playbook,” November 12, 2024, https://wesleywark.substack.com/p/time-to-read-up-on-the-trump-playbook

^[2] Munich Security Conference, Roundtable on “Peace through Strength: A Plan for Ukraine,” Saturday, February 15, 2025, livestream at: https://securityconference.org/en/msc-2025/agenda/event/peace-through-strength-a-plan-for-ukraine/

^[3] For an interesting profile of the UK Foreign Secretary, see the essay by Sam Knight on David Lammy in the New Yorker, “Britain’s Foreign Secretary Braces for the Second Trump Age,” January 20, 2025, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/01/27/britains-foreign-secretary-braces-for-the-second-trump-age