Russia's concern about NATO's expansion to the east is legitimate and the United States does not want to see Ukraine in the US-led military alliance. This was stated by US President Donald Trump's envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, quoted by "Reuters".
Asked about the information that Russia wants a written promise that the Alliance will not expand eastward to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg replied: "That is a legitimate concern".
"We have said that for us, Ukraine's entry into NATO is not on the table, and we are not the only country that says that - you know, I could probably name you four more countries in NATO, but 32 out of 32 are needed for membership," he pointed out. "That's one of the issues that Russia will raise." "They're not just talking about Ukraine, they're talking about the country of Georgia, they're talking about Moldova," Kellogg said, adding that the decision on the US's views on NATO expansion would be up to Trump. He said the sequence of peace talks would include an attempt to merge the two memorandums drawn up by Ukraine and Russia into a single document, with talks in Turkey on Monday. "When we get to Istanbul next week, we'll sit down and talk," Kellogg said, adding that national security advisers from Germany, France and Britain would join discussions on the memorandum with the United States. Kellogg said Trump was "disappointed" with Russia because he had seen "a level of unreason" from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He criticized Russia for its strikes on Ukrainian cities and said he had told Ukraine to join the talks.
A conservative estimate of the number of people killed and wounded in the war in Ukraine - on both sides combined - totaled 1.2 million, Kellogg said.
"This is a staggering number - this is war on an industrial scale," he said.