During an interview with ABC News on Thursday, Special Envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg (Ret.) said that once a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia is struck, Ukraine should be developed into “a steel porcupine” and “a lot of that is going to be on the Europeans’ call, because it’s in their backyard, and you can do that.”
Host Kyra Phillips asked, “So, how do you make sure a ceasefire holds this time and that Russia doesn’t carry out an invasion like this again? Trump is going to be in office only for four more years. Putin’s been around for 25, and he’s going to keep going. How do you get them to stick to this deal?”
Kellogg answered, “I’m absolutely convinced that nothing’s going to — once the ceasefire goes into place, peace goes into place, they’re not going to mess around with Donald J. Trump. They are just not going to do that. And then you build, the people call it a steel porcupine. I made the comment, I’ve actually written about this, where I’ve said, well, maybe you want to make Ukraine like the Sparta of Central Europe, you make sure they’re well-trained, well-equipped, and a lot of that is going to be on the Europeans’ call, because it’s in their backyard, and you can do that. And I don’t think the Russians want to do this again. … I think both sides are saying, look, okay, we don’t want to fight this fight again, at least in the near term. Does President Putin want to do it? Sure, but if you have a credible deterrence…you’re not [going to want to] go whack into the fight. And I think that’s where you want to build to.”
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