Kellogg: US deal with Belarus was to provide channels of communication with putin, not to release prisoners
The US President's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that the US deal with Belarus to release some political prisoners in exchange for easing some sanctions on Minsk was primarily to "ensure lines of communication" with russian leader vladimir putin.
He said this at the Warsaw Security Forum, The Gurdian reports.
Kellogg emphasized that the United States focused on Lukashenko because "he talks to President Putin a lot."
"We’re not sure what he says, but we know that he talks to him. But what we did, we established a relationship to ensure the lines of communication were open so we could make sure all of our messaging was being passed to President Putin. That was the reason we did it; we weren’t going in there initially to get political prisoners out," he said.
Kellogg emphasized that the success in releasing some political prisoners was a positive aspect of this, but "the overall objective of that was not to free political prisoners – the overall objective was [to] find a resolution to the best way we can to the war between Ukraine and Russia."
He said the U.S. was focused on making sure that "the messages were being sent to Vladimir Putin are consistent with the messages that have gone to other circles."
"I don't care if it’s Kirill Dmitriev, I don’t care if it’s [Yuri] Ushakov; I don’t care if it’s Lukashenko. The fact is making sure those messages come across," Kellogg said.
He also noted that the US is not "naive" about Lukashenko's rule and "we know that if he releases one [prisoner], he probably picks up two more."
Kellogg also added that the deal with Belarus was to help the state-owned airline Belavia repair its planes as “the preferred option is that their aeroplanes don’t fall out of the skies,” but to make it clear they must not use them for “nefarious purposes” and flying migrants into Europe. “That’s the bottom line,” he said.