KYIV – An upcoming trip to Kyiv by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia has been canceled but will be rescheduled, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday.
The planned meetings between Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, and Ukrainian officials are “extremely important,” Sybiha told reporters in the Ukrainian capital.
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“I am confident that this meeting will take place in its own time,” he said during a news conference with his visiting Icelandic counterpart. “We are in contact to clearly define the timeline for its organization and to ensure that the meeting is as meaningful as possible.”
Trump’s arrival in the White House on Jan. 20 injects another measure of uncertainty into how the almost 3-year-old war might unfold and whether it can end in the foreseeable future.
Ukraine relies on Western — and especially U.S. — military backing to keep fighting. But Trump has criticized the billions of dollars the Biden administration has spent on Ukraine. He has also said he could end the war in 24 hours, though he hasn’t elaborated on how he might do that.
Ukrainian officials are eager to sway Trump on sticking with Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised Trump’s “strength” and said the American president’s “unpredictability” could work in Ukraine’s favor.
Ukrainians have expressed hope tinged with pragmatism about Trump’s election victory last November.
The war is draining the resources of both sides, though military analysts say the conflict is less sustainable for smaller Ukraine, and the war’s recent trajectory has not been in its favor.
Its undermanned army is under strain on the front line, especially in eastern areas, though Ukrainian officials say its 5-month-long incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region shows that Russia is vulnerable.
Ukrainian forces are clinging on to their diminishing defenses in the eastern stronghold of Kurakhove, where Russian attackers have recently pushed forward after a monthslong battle, a military official said Tuesday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Monday its units had taken Kurakhove.
Defending troops are holding their positions on the town’s western outskirts, as Russian forces pummel urban areas in a tactic they have used across eastern and southern Ukraine, according to Viktor Trehubov, the local Ukrainian army spokesperson.
“The situation in Kurakhove is currently very difficult because a significant part of the city has been destroyed,” Trehubov told Ukrainian television.
When a town is completely destroyed, it becomes impossible to hold it because there are no viable defensive positions left.
“Any building can serve as a fortification, but if there are no buildings, if it’s just scorched earth, it’s impossible to hold the defense,” Trehubov said.
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AP journalist Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine