Trump's envoy for Ukraine: We are very close to an agreement, only two issues remain

(Patria) - The envoy of US President Donald Trump for Ukraine says that an agreement to end the war in that country is "truly close" and that it now depends on resolving two main outstanding issues - the future of the Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, following eight years of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops in Donbas, which comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The war in Ukraine is the European conflict with the highest number of casualties since World War II, and it has also triggered the deepest rift between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

US special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, who is expected to step down from that position in January, told the Reagan National Defense Forum that efforts to resolve the conflict have entered the "last 10 meters," which, as he noted, is always the most difficult stretch.

The two main unresolved issues, Kellogg said, relate to territory - primarily the future of Donbas - and the future of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which is under Russian control.

- If we resolve those two issues, I think the rest of the things will fall into place quite well. We are almost at the finish line. We are truly very, very close - Kellogg said yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

According to initial US proposals, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, whose reactors are currently shut down and in cold shutdown, would be restarted under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the electricity generated would be equally distributed between Russia and Ukraine.