The US Presidentʼs Special Representative for Ukraine Keith Kellogg plans to visit Belarus and meet with Alexander Lukashenko.
Reuters reports this, citing sources.
If Keith Kellogg does indeed visit Lukashenko, he will be the highest-ranking US official to visit Belarus in recent years. The purpose of the trip is still unclear. It has not been officially announced.
In private conversations, Kellogg has described the visit as a step that could help start peace talks to end Russiaʼs war against Ukraine. Such trips require careful deliberation and are subject to cancellation or change at the last minute.
In 2020, during Donald Trumpʼs first presidency, then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Belarus — the first visit of this level in over 20 years and an attempt by the White House to improve relations with Minsk amid tense Belarusian-Russian relations at the time.
However, after the so-called 2020 Belarusian elections, which the international community called undemocratic, then-US President Joe Biden changed policy and Western countries largely ignored Belarus. In 2022, the US closed its embassy in the country, realizing that Belarus was supporting Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
However, during Trumpʼs second term, his administration again tried to establish contact with Belarus. According to an American official, options for gradually distancing Minsk from Moscowʼs influence and moving closer to Washington were discussed privately. In February, a State Department delegation, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Smith, traveled to Belarus to pick up three political prisoners. According to The New York Times, Smith viewed the visit as a possible start to an agreement — the release of more political prisoners in exchange for reduced sanctions.
- In April, Belarus released an American lawyer, former lawmaker and member of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front, Yuras Ziankovych. One senior US official saw this as a signal that Lukashenko may want to improve relations with the US. But Western diplomats doubt whether it will be possible to distance Belarus from Russia, with which it has close economic and political ties.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.