Khaberni - Keith Kellogg, the special American envoy to Ukraine, stated that reaching an agreement to end the war there is "very close" and it now depends on resolving two major outstanding issues, which are the future of the Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in Donbas for eight years. Donbas consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The war in Ukraine represents the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II and has ignited the largest confrontation between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.
Kellogg, who is scheduled to step down from his position in January, at the Reagan National Defense Forum said that efforts to resolve the conflict in the "final ten meters" are always the hardest.
Kellogg added that the two main issues relate to territory, primarily the future of Donbas and the future of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which is the largest in Europe and currently under Russian control.
Kellogg added: "If we resolve these two issues, I believe the rest will go well... We were nearly at the end."
He continued, saying: "We really are close."
Kellogg noted that Russia and Ukraine together have suffered more than two million casualties since the start of the war. Neither Russia nor Ukraine discloses reliable estimates of their losses.
Moscow says that the West and Ukraine's estimates of its losses are exaggerated. Kyiv also says that Moscow exaggerates the Ukrainian losses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he had a long and "substantive" phone call with Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The Kremlin stated on Friday that it expects Kushner to take the lead in drafting a potential agreement.
