The US will not recognize the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian — Kellogg

Former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, said that the United States would not recognize the occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian, adding that Ukraine would reclaim them. Kellogg made the statement in an interview with "Naspravdi MAХ", reports UNN. 

"The United States has a doctrine called the Welles Doctrine. It means that we do not recognize the conquest of territories that become part of another state. I’ll give you an example. Instead of Ukraine, as with the Baltic countries during World War II, the Soviet Union occupied the Baltics, but we never recognized them as part of the Soviet Union. They still remained a separate occupied country," Kellogg said. 

He noted that the United States has this view regarding the occupied territories. 

"Are they physically occupied? Yes. But do we legally recognize that this is now their territory? No. Do we recognize Crimea as Russian territory? No. The same applies to Donbas, Luhansk or Donetsk, Kherson or Zaporizhzhia. They are simply occupied, that’s all. We recognize this," Kellogg added. 

Kellogg stressed that "over time, perhaps not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but they will return to Ukraine". 

We remind you 

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with General Keith Kellogg, who arrived in Kyiv from Odesa to participate in the Veterans Forum. The parties discussed the intensification of Russian strikes on infrastructure and civilians, as well as Ukraine’s need for means of protection against ballistic missiles.