Ukraine could be divided, “almost like Berlin after World War II,” as part of a peace deal between Kiev and Moscow, Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg , said in an interview with The Times.

The general, a leading figure in U.S. efforts to end the three-year war, suggested that British and French troops could set up control zones in the west of the country as part of a “reassurance force,” with the Russian military in the occupied east. They would include Ukrainian forces and a demilitarized zone.

Kellogg said the Anglo-French-led force west of the Dnipro River, which bisects Ukraine from north to south through Kiev , “would not be provocative at all” for Moscow. The general added that Ukraine is a country large enough to host several armies trying to impose a ceasefire.

“You could almost make it look like what happened in Berlin after the Second World War, when there was a Russian zone, a French zone, a British zone and an American zone,” he continued, suggesting that a demilitarized zone of about 29 km could be implemented along the current lines of control in the east.

Implicit in the general's plan for how to move from a ceasefire to a lasting peace agreement is U.S. recognition of Russia's de facto control of the territory it currently occupies , the Times reports.

Yesterday, in fact, Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said, as reported by Reuters, that "the quickest way" to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine would be "to support a strategy that would give Russia ownership of the four eastern Ukrainian regions that Moscow has attempted to annex in 2022."

Kellogg partially corrected his shot after the controversy his interview provoked: " I was misrepresented. I was talking about a post-ceasefire resilience force to support the sovereignty of Ukraine. In the discussions of partition, I was referring to areas or zones of responsibility of an allied force (without US troops). I was not referring to a partition of Ukraine ."

(Online Union)

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