Trump envoy tells Alaska summit critics to ‘shut up’
The Alaska summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was a historic step toward ending the Ukraine conflict, Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg has said, telling critics to just “shut up.”
The two presidents met in Anchorage last week and expressed hope that progress had been made toward a peace deal.
“We’re living in a really historic time,” Kellogg told Fox Business on Wednesday, adding: “To the critics, I’d probably like to just say, oh, shut up and go sit in the corner.”
He stressed that Trump had done more to address the conflict than his predecessor Joe Biden, who “never even talked to Putin.”
Unlike the previous administration, which outright rejected dialogue with Moscow and vowed to support Ukraine militarily “as long as it takes,” Trump is banking on his direct negotiating style and is pushing for a diplomatic solution, according to Kellogg.
Russian officials, including Putin, have repeatedly welcomed the US president’s “sincere” desire to achieve peace.
Trump met Putin on Friday in their first face-to-face encounter since 2019. Both described the talks as constructive and warm.
During a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, several European leaders, and the heads of NATO and the European Commission this week, the US president declared Kiev’s membership in NATO to be out of the question, and insisted on a direct Putin-Zelensky meeting.
Trump later briefed Putin on the discissions. According to Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov, the call lasted 40 minutes, with both sides expressing readiness to continue discussions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on Wednesday that Moscow is ready to raise the level of its delegation for peace negotiations with Ukraine – an idea he said had been floated by Putin after the call with Trump.
Putin has not ruled out a meeting with Zelensky in principle, but said it should be preceded by serious progress in talks on the conflict. Moscow has also voiced concern about Zelensky’s authority to sign any binding documents, given that his presidential term expired last year.
