A News Agency

General Keith Kellogg suggested that Western forces could assume control zones as part of a "guarantee force", while the Russians would occupy the east.

Ukrainian forces would then maintain a demilitarized zone 18 miles wide between the sides.

General Kellogg, who played a key role in ending the three-year conflict, confirmed that unlike post-1945 Germany, there would be no US forces on the ground.

He told The Times that British and French-led forces occupying the west of the Dnipro River — which could serve as a north-south dividing line — “would not be provocative at all” for the Kremlin.

Kellogg added, “You can compare it to what happened in Berlin after World War II — there was a Russian zone, a French zone, and a British zone.”