Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg has been excluded from high-level talks on ending the war in Ukraine on Thursday after the Kremlin deemed him “too close to Ukraine,” NBC News first reported.

“Kellogg is a former American general, too close to Ukraine. Not our kind of person, not of the caliber we are looking for,” said an official familiar with the matter and not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Kellogg, who is President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has been a loyal supporter of the president going back to his first administration when he was the national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence.

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