By Julia Struck

Copyright kyivpost

Kellogg dismissed Russian advances in the Donbas as meaningless. “If you consider advancing moving by meters, not miles, then okay, that’s successful. But at the cost they’re having, it’s enormous,” he said.

He recalled a conversation in the Oval Office with Trump about six weeks ago, when he was asked by the president if Russia was winning. “Mr. President, don’t just listen to me,” Kellogg said. “Your Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Kaine, is outside. Ask him that question.” Kellogg said that Kaine’s answer was the same: “They’re not winning.”

Kellogg said he had seen Europeans “standing up” and stressed that the conflict was essentially Europe’s war because it was happening in Europe’s backyard.

During a recent discussion in the Oval Office about the supposed primacy of the Russian military, he told the conference: “I said to the people in the room, ‘We’d kick their ass.’ I mean by that don’t take their statements at face value. They’re not as good as Putin says they are. And I give great credit to the Ukrainian military because they’ve taken them down a couple notches.”

“I don’t think anybody should be afraid of the Russian military… But I don’t believe they’ve got the capacity that they can march towards Berlin or anywhere else,” he added.

He also said that Russia’s dependence on partners such as China and North Korea underscores its true weakness. Kellogg argued that in the China-Russia partnership, Moscow was clearly the junior partner, while Beijing held the real economic and military strength as well as historical weight and leadership.

“I think that if China cut off support for Russia today, the war would be over tomorrow. I think they cannot survive without Beijing’s support,” he said.

Kellogg added that if Russia were truly doing well, it would not need to bring in 10,000 North Korean troops to fight in Kursk and elsewhere.

“Ukraine’s not going to lose this war,” he said.

Kellogg warned that the US and its allies lag far behind. “It’s drones now and drone technology has changed dramatically,” he said, adding that armored vehicles are no longer safe because “drones have changed that.”

He described the rapid advances in both drone and counter-drone systems as transformative for modern combat: “It’s almost – you hate to say it – like a video game. They just took out a tank. Okay, go get a Coke, come back and take out another one.”

According to Kellogg, this technological revolution is altering not just battlefield tactics but also the economics of war. “It’s dramatically changed warfare both in cost analysis and how wars are being fought,” he said, crediting Ukraine with recognizing the shift early and adapting faster than most nations.

Kellogg arrived in Kyiv last Thursday, shortly after dozens of Russian drones violated Polish airspace over the previous night. He had originally planned to stop in Poland before traveling on to Ukraine.

This marks Kellogg’s third visit in recent months. He attended Independence Day events in Kyiv on Aug. 24, joining a prayer breakfast and meeting Ukrainian leaders, and he also visited in July. During that trip, he said he hoped Ukraine would celebrate its next Independence Day “under peaceful skies.”

On Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky joked that he was ready to grant Kellogg Ukrainian citizenship, since Russia appeared to refrain from striking Kyiv whenever he visits.

“When Keith Kellogg is in Kyiv, the residents of Kyiv can sleep soundly. Thank you. I would like you to visit all cities in Ukraine,” Zelensky said, likening him to the US Patriot air defense system.

“I am ready to grant General Kellogg citizenship. We can give him an apartment – anything he needs, if it will prompt Russia to cease fire,” the president added.