The Kremlin views Kellogg—a retired general and the administration’s top Ukraine negotiator—as too sympathetic to Kyiv. Russian officials deemed his participation “counterproductive,” the sources said.
Despite his absence, the U.S. administration said Kellogg has already shared all key updates on U.S.-Ukraine talks with Ukrainian counterparts, U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “His absence is not a serious problem,” one official told CNN.
European diplomats, however, have expressed concern that without Kellogg’s on-the-ground expertise, the U.S. team will lack crucial insights into the situation in Ukraine. “His presence was expected, and he should have been there,” an EU official said.
The U.S. delegation will include Rubio; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick; presidential envoy Steve Witkoff; and White House press secretary Caroline Levitt. Kellogg is expected to join a future trilateral Trump–Putin–Zelenskyy meeting, should the United States convince the Russian dictator to participate.
On Aug. 2, Kyiv Post reported that Kellogg had planned to visit Ukraine before Trump’s Aug. 8 “deadline” for a peace deal with Russia. That trip did not materialize, though it might have coincided with Witkoff’s Russia visit on Aug. 6–7. Kellogg last traveled to Kyiv on July 14, meeting Zelenskyy and other officials; Ukrainian authorities noted that Russia paused its bombing campaign over Kyiv during his stay.
Later on Aug. 15, Trump and Putin are set to meet in Alaska at a U.S. military base near Anchorage, the state’s largest city.
Putin has not visited Western countries since 2021, when he met Joe Biden in Geneva amid Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine’s border ahead of its invasion. The last time he was in the U.S. was in 2015 for the U.N. General Assembly.
Trump said he expects to know “within the first two, three, four, or five minutes whether it’s going to be a good meeting or a bad meeting.” “And if it’s a bad meeting, it will end very quickly. But if it’s a good meeting, we will eventually achieve peace in the near future,” he said.
He added that if the talks are successful, a subsequent trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Putin, and Trump could be held as soon as possible.