A U.S. push to end the war in Ukraine is approaching its most delicate stage, with Washington’s outgoing special envoy saying a negotiated settlement is “really close” — but Russia insisting that key American proposals must be fundamentally revised.
Retired General Keith Kellogg, the U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine who steps down in January, said efforts to secure a deal between Moscow and Kyiv are now “in the last 10 meters,” though two unresolved issues continue to block a final agreement.
The comments, delivered at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, mark the most optimistic public assessment in months from a senior U.S. negotiator involved in talks that have intensified quietly behind the scenes.
Kellogg said the remaining obstacles center on the future status of the Donbas region and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest atomic facility in Europe.
“If we get those two issues settled, I think the rest of the things will work out fairly well,” he told attendees at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. “We’re almost there. We’re really, really close.”
The Donbas, encompassing Donetsk and Luhansk — remains one of the most fiercely contested areas of the 2022 Russian invasion. Although Moscow claims the entire region as its territory, Ukrainian forces still control roughly 5,000 square kilometers. Most countries continue to recognize the Donbas as part of Ukraine under international law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly warned that conceding remaining Ukrainian-held areas of Donetsk would be illegal without a national referendum, and would leave the country more vulnerable to future Russian offensives.
Russia signaled over the weekend that Washington’s current framework is not yet acceptable.
After a recent round of talks in Moscow involving U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told Russian media that the United States would need to make “serious, I would say, radical changes” to its proposed settlement documents.
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Ushakov did not specify what changes Moscow is demanding but confirmed that “territorial problems” — a term the Kremlin uses to refer to control over the Donbas — were at the center of the discussions.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, seized by Russian forces early in the war, is also a major sticking point. International nuclear watchdogs have warned that the facility remains at risk due to repeated shelling in the surrounding area, though both Russia and Ukraine deny responsibility.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pledged to make ending the war a signature foreign-policy goal, has intensified diplomatic contacts as his envoys enter what they describe as the final stretch of negotiations. Trump has said he wants to be remembered as a “peacemaker,” though talks have repeatedly stalled since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
More than two years of intense fighting — following eight years of earlier conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists — have left the Donbas devastated and diplomatic efforts strained.
Despite optimism from Kellogg, it remains unclear whether a final agreement can be reached before the change of U.S. administration in January, or whether Moscow’s new demands will trigger another delay.