US President-elect Donald Trump named retired General Keith Kellogg as Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, a position which will have a key role in the incoming administration’s effort to end the war in Ukraine.

Kellogg “was with me right from the beginning!” Trump said in a statement. “Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”

Kellogg previously served as chief of staff on the National Security Council and as former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser during Trump’s first term in office.

“Thank god,” one European official told Semafor. “Not the worst option at all.” Other reported frontrunners for the role, including ex-intelligence chief Ric Grenell, were widely seen as more skeptical of giving any further aid to Ukraine.