U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg stated that reaching an agreement to end the war is "very close" and now hinges on resolving two key outstanding issues: the future of the Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 following eight years of conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in Donbas, which comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The war in Ukraine has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II and has triggered the most significant confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Kellogg, who is set to step down from his position in January, said at the Reagan National Defense Forum that efforts to resolve the conflict are in the "last ten meters," which he described as always the hardest.

He emphasized that the two main unresolved issues are territorial: primarily the future of Donbas and the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which is currently under Russian control. “If we resolve these two issues, I believe the rest will fall into place… We’re almost there,” Kellogg said.

He added, “We’re really close.”

Kellogg noted that Russia and Ukraine have together suffered over two million dead and wounded since the war began. Neither Russia nor Ukraine provides reliable estimates of their casualties. Moscow claims Western and Ukrainian estimates of Russian losses are exaggerated, while Kyiv says Moscow overstates Ukrainian losses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he had a long and “substantive” phone call with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The Kremlin said on Friday that it expects Kushner to play a leading role in drafting a potential agreement.