Trump's Ukraine envoy Kellogg to step down as US pursues new peace plan

President Donald Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has informed the White House he'll leave his post in January, according to two senior administration officials.

The move comes as the White House is working on a new peace plan aimed at bringing an end to Russia's war in Ukraine that is being largely coordinated by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That plan calls for major concessions by Kyiv, including ceding territory to Russia and abandoning certain weaponry.

The officials were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity about Kellogg's expected departure from the administration. They declined to comment on why Kellogg was departing. News of Kellogg's expected exit was first reported by Reuters.

Kellogg was initially named special envoy for Ukraine and Russia during Trump's presidential transition. But his role shrunk as Witkoff, a real estate developer turned diplomat, emerged as the president's chief interlocutor with Putin and his advisers.

Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner have also helped direct the US-led negotiations bringing about a fragile truce in the Israel-Hamas war.

Kellogg is a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been in Trump's orbit. He served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, was chief of staff of the National Security Council and stepped in as an acting national security adviser for Trump when his first top national security aide, Michael Flynn, resigned.

Kellogg also featured in multiple Trump investigations in his first term. He was among the administration officials who listened in on the July 2019 call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump prodded his Ukrainian counterpart to pursue investigations into President Joe Biden and his adult son Hunter.

The call, which Kellogg would later say did not raise any concerns on his end, was at the centre of the first of two House impeachment cases against Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate in both impeachment trials.

On Janury 6, 2021, hours before pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol, Kellogg, who was then Pence's national security adviser, listened in on a heated call in which Trump told his vice president to object to or delay the certification in Congress of Biden's victory.

Kellogg later told House investigators that he recalled Trump saying to Pence words to the effect of You're not tough enough to make the call.