He shared his opinions on Espreso TV.“Right now, extremely difficult negotiations are underway regarding attempts to introduce a pause in the Russian-Ukrainian war. These efforts are coming from the White House, from Trump, who, I am convinced, by the way, is making absolutely genuine efforts to end the war. I doubt this war can simply end as long as Putin exists and as long as Russia exists. But theoretically, there could be a pause in this war, because our Western partners are pushing for it, and considering the state of Russia’s economy, Putin might temporarily agree to it. Very complicated talks are currently underway about the terms of this pause. And Kellogg [U.S. President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine - ed.] is the person who has Trump’s trust. He is probably the one among Trump’s close circle who has the most trust in Ukraine. That is why he came to Ukraine precisely on Independence Day,” he said.According Serhiy Taran, Keith Kellogg visited Kyiv not just for Independence Day but also to discuss potential conditions for a pause in the war.“Among all these demands that Russia has put forward and that are discussed publicly, there are essentially two key ones. The first — the most vulnerable for Ukraine — is the territorial issue, which remains unclear. The second key issue for Ukraine is security guarantees that Western countries may or may not provide. These guarantees include several areas of discussion. The first is the purchase of weapons for Ukraine. What would such guarantees mean? That they would be regular, and Ukraine must insist that this is literally included in the budgets of Western countries. These weapons could be American, and that should also be part of the guarantees — that Americans agree the weapons will be purchased with European money and transferred to Ukraine, and that this should be a wide enough range of weapons. This too must be a guarantee the United States provides to Ukraine. And this, probably, is the most important part of these discussions,” he explained.The second part of the talks, Taran continued, concerns long-term financing of Ukraine’s defense industry and the creation of joint military production with Europe.“These facilities have already begun to be set up, but what is important is that guarantees ensure funding is allocated for them. And I think another element of guarantees could be, for example, the construction of large-scale defensive structures along the entire front line funded by Europe. This is a completely realistic scenario. Europe itself should be interested in building such fortifications in Ukraine, because they would protect not only Ukraine but also Europe. Guarantees could also cover this. Another topic now under discussion, and I believe Kellogg also raised it during his visit, is the theoretical deployment of European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine. Frankly, I view this with great skepticism, because Russia is categorically against it, and Putin is trying to negotiate with Russia. So I don’t think this will be easy. But the talks continue, perhaps at least so the issue can later be taken off the agenda as a compromise.So I think the peacekeeping contingent issue is important, but I don’t see sufficient prospects. The only theoretical possibility is that, if the current stage of negotiations reaches a dead end, such a contingent might be possible with the approval of the UN Security Council and in a broader format — not only with NATO countries involved. So, negotiations on this are also underway. All of this is extraordinarily complex, because these talks will also determine Ukraine’s very difficult territorial question,” Serhiy Taran said.