President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he will nominate retired Gen. Keith Kellogg as assistant to the president and special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.

“Keith led a distinguished military and business career, including serving in highly sensitive national security roles during my first administration. He was with me from the beginning! Together we will secure peace through strength, and America and the make the world SAFE AGAIN!”, Trump said in a statement announcing his decision.

During Trump’s first administration, Kellogg served as chief of staff and executive secretary of the National Security Council. He previously served in the military for over 35 years.

Kellogg co-authored a policy paper in April, obtained by NBC News, outlining how he would try to end the war in Ukraine, including potentially making U.S. military aid to Kiev conditional on their participation in peace talks with Russia.

The paper proposed a ceasefire, while Kellogg and co-author Fred Fleitz wrote: “Specifically, it would mean a formal American policy to seek a ceasefire and a negotiated solution to the conflict in Ukraine. The United States would continue to arm and strengthen Ukraine.” its defense mechanisms must ensure that Russia will not make further progress or attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement. However, future US military assistance will require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia.

In the article, the two authors seemed to acknowledge that an end to the war was unlikely as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin was still leading his country.

“Ukraine would not be asked to give up the goal of regaining all its territory, but it would agree to use diplomacy and not force, with the understanding that this would require a future diplomatic breakthrough that is unlikely to occur before Putin leaves office,” Kellogg said. and Fleitz wrote.

The two also explained that it would be difficult for Ukraine to accept a peace deal “that does not give them back all their territory or, at least for the time being, hold Russia responsible for the carnage it inflicted on Ukraine.”

Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the president-elect endorses Kellogg’s policy document.

Trump repeatedly pledged during the campaign to end the war, but has not provided many details on how he would do so. At a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September, Trump told reporters: “We’re going to do a lot of work with both sides to try to get this settled and worked out.”

He added: “It has to end. At some point it has to end. He’s been through hell. His country has been through hell.”

At an earlier campaign event in Georgia, Trump complained about U.S. aid to Ukraine, saying, “Every time Zelenskyy comes to the United States, he walks away with $100 billion. I think he’s the greatest salesman on the planet. that war – unless I’m president.

Trump and Zelenskyy have a complicated relationship. A July 2019 phone call between the two leaders led to Trump’s first impeachment. Trump was accused of withholding aid to Ukraine in an attempt to pressure Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. He denied wrongdoing and was later acquitted in the Republican-led Senate.

Vice President-elect JD Vance has also spoken out against aid to Ukraine, as has Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I know what Donald Trump was thinking while he was having that meeting. He thought, I want to turn this man around and hold him by the legs and shake all the money out of his pockets and hope it gets to $208 billion… That’s what the Democrats gave him, and we need to bring it. money home,” Kennedy said at a Trump rally in September.

During an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Vance also expressed support for holding peace talks. “I think it’s important that if we ever want to end the war in Ukraine, we’re going to have to fundamentally, at some level, enter into some kind of negotiations between Ukraine, between Russia, between our NATO allies in Europe. he said.

Vance had long criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine, writing in an op-ed earlier this year: “There is, frankly, no good reason that U.S. aid should be necessary. Europe consists of many large countries with productive economies.”

And he said in a podcast in February 2022, just before Russia invaded Ukraine: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”