Kremlin told US it didn't want Trump's Ukraine-Russia envoy at peace talks

President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia was excluded from high-level talks on ending the war after the Kremlin said it didn't want him there, a US administration official and a Russian official told NBC News, Report informs.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg was conspicuously absent from two recent summits in Saudi Arabia — one with Russian officials and the other with Ukrainians — even though the talks come under his remit.

“Together,” Trump said when announcing Kellogg’s nomination in November, “we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”

But Kellogg did not attend US-Russia talks in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on February 18. Russian President Vladimir Putin thought he was too pro-Ukraine, a senior Russian official with direct knowledge of the Kremlin’s thinking told NBC News.

“Kellogg is a former American general, too close to Ukraine. Not our kind of person, not of the caliber we are looking for,” according to the official, who is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

A US official in the Trump administration, who is also not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed to NBC News that Russia didn’t want Kellogg involved. The official did not know when this was communicated to the White House.