Another Naive Official Named to Resolve Russian War in Ukraine

President Trump is hard at work trying to fulfill his campaign promise to end Russia’s war against Ukraine in days, which sounds as ridiculously empty as Putin’s claim at the start of the war to seize Kyiv in a couple of days and all of Ukraine in a couple of months.

Trump on Feb. 3 officially appointed retired Gen. Keith Kellogg as a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Voice of America and other news media reported. “We made a lot of progress on Russia-Ukraine,” Trump was quoted as saying after signing the decree without providing further details. Truthfully, there are no further dertails.

Kellogg joins a fraternity of White House officials that don’t know Ukraine, its people and history, and the extent of Russia’s hatred for Ukrainians that has led it to invade again its peaceful neighbor the last time three years ago. But they were nonetheless given this important post.

Earlier, when Kellogg’s name was first bandied about in the news media, a headline for an RFE/RL article read: “Trump Able to End Ukraine War In ‘Months, Not Years,’ Aide Keith Kellogg Says.”

US officials would be making another fatal mistake if they were working against a timeline to end the war. If haste is their goal, then all Trump, Rubio and Kellogg have to do is convince President Zelenskyy to drop his guns and the war would be over in the next minute.

However, if the White House is interested in fairness and justice, then the Administration will have to apply itself toward that higher goal.

Beyond working for previous White House officials, there is no evidence that Kellogg knows anything about Ukraine, its history or the reason for this or any other war from the Kremlin’s point of view.

Word Inside the Beltway indicates that the American President intends to meet with Putin to pave the way for negotiations. This would be another obnoxious or naïve step in the race to bring the war to an end.

In an interview published on February 1 by the Associated Press, Zelenskyy said that direct talks between Washington and Moscow without including Ukraine could be “very dangerous.” The fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, had succinctly and rightly observed: “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy said Trump and Putin “may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone.” Zelenskyy also said his team has been in contact with the Trump administration at a “general level,” but he said he hopes face-to-face meetings will take place soon.

Kellogg opined that the war can be resolved within the “near term,” which he defines as 100 days out from the inauguration, and said it was his personal and professional goal to help Trump broker a solution by that point.

In addition to a slew of errors in thinking about this war, the biggest of all is that the United States believes both Ukraine and Russia are equally culpable, that the perceived transgressions are equal, that there are no criminal actions, that there is parity.

That line of thinking will not bring peace to the region. It will not unveil a sustainable peace in the words of Secretary of State Rubio. Indeed, he seems to be rather aware of the repetitious wars against Ukraine that have been launched by Moscow for centuries.

The late Bishop Desmond Tutu was correct in stating that if you are neutral – even when endeavoring to resolve a conflict – you choose the oppressor. The White House is playing the ill-fated neutral hand which will only benefit Russia just like meddling in Ukraine’s elections. Only Ukrainian laws, lawmakers and electorate can decide that question.

Sadly, Russia’s war against Ukraine will likely continue even after a ceasefire, turning the region into a hotbed of bloodshed like the Middle East. The free world tried to hogtie Germany into submission as punishment for World War One only to spur it to commence World War Two. Israel can’t once and for all rid itself of its historical enemies.

Russia also has an insatiable appetite for aggression and imperialism and a deep, ancient hatred for Ukraine and Ukrainians. To achieve even a semblance of peace in Ukraine and neighboring x-captive nations, the United States must continue supplying weapons to the region so that the threatened can demonstrate their genuine prowess against Russia. Washington must also sit on Ukraine’s side of the table when and if negotiations with Russia begin and strongly support only Kyiv’s position. Russian cutthroats must evacuate to Russia, its war criminals must be apprehended reparations must be paid. Even if Russia enjoys the support of Iran and North Korea, Ukraine has on its side old Europe and Eastern Europe, Canada and the United States, which should be enough to immobilize Russia and its bloodthirsty plans.

Such a militarized, polarized world may unfortunately be the only workable solution to Russia’s desire to invade Ukraine every decade. The other would be to annihilate Russia.

United Nations Takes Note of Russian ‘Alarming’ Murders of Ukrainian POWs; Ukrainian Officials Identify Severed Head of Murdered Ukrainian Soldier

I’ve been writing about the latest Russian war against Ukraine since Moscow’s cutthroats invaded Ukraine in 2014 and occupied Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk. War is hell but Russia’s behavior in Ukraine during the past decade at least is appalling and inhuman.

Two categories of premeditated Russian crimes against humanity, specifically the Ukrainian part of it, stand out as especially heartless and merciless. One is its rape, theft and killing of children. The other one, which I’m addressing in this blog, is its execution of captured Ukrainian soldiers, in other words prisoners of war who are granted internationally recognized protection. International humanitarian law prohibits the killing of prisoners of war and the wounded and regards it as a war crime.

The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission has taken note of these particularly heinous crimes.

It recorded an “alarming rise” in reported executions of Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian cutthroats during the war in recent months, it said on Monday, February 3.

The mission in Ukraine said it had received reports of 79 executions in 24 separate incidents since the end of August 2024 – a half a year.

“Many Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered or were in physical custody of the Russian armed forces were shot dead on the spot. Witness accounts also described the killings of unarmed and injured Ukrainian soldiers,” the UN mission said in a statement.

Commenting on the report, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the Russian atrocities demand urgent international action and condemnation.

“Russia’s horrific executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war demonstrate that Ukraine confronts true beasts,” he said on X. “We need new and effective international legal tools, and concrete steps to hold the perpetrators accountable.”

The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the UN admitted naively.

The UN body obtained and analyzed video and photographic material published by Ukrainian and Russian sources showing executions or dead bodies and conducted detailed interviews with witnesses. It said the reported executions took place in areas where Russian offensive operations were underway. Some Russian cutthroats have been seen taking selfies of themselves killing Ukrainian POWs.

Danielle Bell, head of the mission, said some Russian officials “have explicitly called for inhumane treatment, and even execution” of captured Ukrainian soldiers.

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office earlier said it was investigating dozens of cases of executions of Ukrainian military personnel by Russian forces. Earlier, Russians were recording beheading and castrating Ukrainian soldiers, the latter crime was perpetrated to reduce the Ukrainian birthrate.

How can the Ukrainian government sit across a negotiating table and talk with them about a cessation of hostilities? How can President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio pay the Russians any respect. They wouldn’t show any deference to Nazis in World War Two, would they?

FOLLOW UP: The Kyiv Independent reported that Ukrainian officials identified the body of a beheaded Ukrainian soldier. A photograph, circulated on the Internet by Russians shows the severed head of a Ukrainian soldier being held, presumably, by a Russian soldier.

The National Police will conduct investigations to clarify the circumstances of the incident, locate the body, and gather further details, Artur Dobroserdov, the commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances, said on Feb. 3.

“We urge you to refrain from spreading unverified information and trust only official sources of information,” he added.

Ukrainian authorities have documented widespread violations of the Geneva Conventions by Russia, including the execution of 177 captured Ukrainian soldiers as of mid-December 2024. Cases of Russian forces decapitating Ukrainian troops have also surfaced in June and August 2024.

No Negotiations with Russia; NATO Membership is a Must

Ukraine is not a nation or a country whose sole place in the 21st century is on a stage impressively performing folk and classical music and songs or dancing world-famous choreography. Ukraine has been wrongly and dangerously deprived of its rightful place under the sun for far longer than other righteous and unrighteous peoples which has created a lopsided global political constellation of independent nation-states. To be sure, independent Ukraine has a great deal to offer the international community.

The malicious gatekeepers that have traditionally been the historical enemies of the Ukrainian nation, which for their own national selfish reasons kept immensely naturally rich Ukraine shackled in a dungeon, are tsarist, communist and Putin’s Russia, Austro-Hungarian empire, Nazi Germany, Poland, Hungary and a few others. On the benign side we find countries that support Ukraine but not wholeheartedly due ignorance or confusion about Ukraine such as the United States, and the other NATO member-states.

Today the Ukrainian nation is again embroiled in a war for its existence, which is fast turning into the biggest war on the European continent since the Allies defeat Nazi Germany. The unfortunate but well-known external scenario is repeating itself: the usual allies are more or less advocating for Ukraine with the exception of its Eastern European allies that have experienced Russian aggression and subjugation while the enemy, Russia and its confederates, Belarus, North Korea and Iran, are brazenly seeking Ukraine’s defeat, re-subjugation and eradication. 

And herein lies the quandary about Ukraine’s future. What can the free world do to preserve Ukrainian independence, sovereignty and indivisibility without too much collateral damage? As for Russia, the Kremlin doesn’t care about its image so long as the geographic territory and people known as Ukraine and Ukrainians are its captives regardless of the collateral damage.

Does the free world want to see Ukraine free and mighty, allied with its side regardless of the consequences or not? Russia certainly doesn’t care about the consequences so long as its goals are reached. Thus, it is regularly bombing civilian residences, hospitals and infrastructures and killing unarmed Ukrainian men, women and children not to mention prisoners or war.

Since the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, the Kremlin hasn’t diminished its deadly air attacks against civilian targets in Ukraine. Among its recent targets has been historic Odesa, the Ukrainian city on the Black Sea. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said the center of Odesa, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was among the areas hit during the assault.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Odesa’s grand historic opera house and the five-star Hotel Bristol, a landmark constructed 19th century, were damaged during the shelling. Zelenskyy added that Norwegian diplomatic representatives were in the epicenter of the attack but avoided harm.

Later this month, the latest Russian war against Ukraine will have lasted three years. By anecdotal accounts, the war, which early on attracted the attention of the mainstream media, now has fallen off their front pages and evening telecasts. Ukraine may be restocking its arsenals due to the good will of allies, but Russia continues to be unrelenting in fulfilling its coldhearted mission. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s permanent representative and ambassador to the United Nations, testified in the Security Council that Russians believe that Ukrainian soldiers and civilians do not deserve to live and must be killed.

The non-combatant bloodshed and unrestrained destruction of cities and farmlands have prompted many outsiders to raise the clarion call for an end to the war, a ceasefire and even surrender of temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory to Russia. For them it matters not how the war ends. They just want the shooting and bombing to end. President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are part of that ignorant, naïve and dangerous fraternity. Surely, Washington would not agree to surrender an acre of American land to Hamas or another Islamist terrorist group.

For Ukrainians and its strongest advocates, regional peace is not a cheap commodity. As was demanded by some during the Vietnam War, Ukrainians also today insist on peace with victory, peace with honor.

President Zelenskyy, who talks about peace more than Putin and some other leaders, understands that a cessation of hostilities between Ukraine and Russia, a ceasefire, cannot be merely a declared intention but a realistic and moral conclusion. And the onus of fulfillment is not Ukraine but rather Russia. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine and has been waging war on its fertile black soil for nearly 36 months, it first and foremost must stop shooting, pack up its weapons and cutthroats, and return to Russia. There is no justifiable reason for negotiating anything with the aggressor. Countries that are suggesting discussions are playing into the hands of the Kremlin. Putin knows based on the Trump’s behavior that the United States will strongly endeavor to force Ukraine to make concessions to wrongly placate Moscow.

However, Zelenskyy understands that the concept of a tripartite meeting about the war might be a deal breaker. Even though Ukraine is firmly sticking to the adage of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Trump said his team is already engaged in “very serious” discussions with the Russian side on how to end the war in Ukraine.

Talks about the war that do not include Ukraine are “very dangerous,” Zelenskyy told the news media. “They may have their own relations but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone.”

Zelenskyy said the first step for Ukraine is to hold a high-level meeting with Trump, so that Kyiv and Washington can develop their own plans for a ceasefire. Then the parties can move on to discussions that involve Russia.  

“I believe that, first and foremost, we (must) hold a meeting with (Trump), and that is important. And that is, by the way, something that everyone in Europe wants,” Zelenskyy said.

If I were asked, I believe Ukraine should squeeze Russia until it crawls to the negotiating table and surrenders unconditionally, like Nazi Germany did in 1945.

As for the future, all thinking pundits know Russians will never abandon their dream of capturing and subjugating Ukraine. To protect itself, Kyiv must promote the idea of NATO membership for Ukraine as the “cheapest” possible security guarantee.

“I really believe that these are the cheapest security guarantees that Ukraine can get, the cheapest for everyone,” Zelenskyy said. “It will be a signal that it is not for Russia to decide who should be in NATO and who should not, but for the United States of America to decide. I think this is a great victory for Trump.”

Hopefully he’s listening.