US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not participate in a meeting of representatives of Ukraine, the USA and the EU in London, where the terms of a ceasefire agreement in Russia’s war against Ukraine are to be discussed. This decision of Rubio was announced by State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
The announcement came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected one of the conditions for a peace settlement that, according to Western media, the Donald Trump administration had proposed: Ukraine’s recognition of Russian jurisdiction over Crimea.
On 22 April, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce initially confirmed Marco Rubio’s intention to participate in the talks, saying that “London has the capacity”. She attributed the Secretary of State’s decision to cancel the London trip to “logistical challenges in his schedule.”
Last week, after meeting with Ukraine and European allies in Paris, Rubio warned that US President Donald Trump was losing patience with the dragging negotiations and could devote his attention to “other priorities.”
At the same time, the State Department confirmed the participation of President Trump’s special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in the London meeting. “We look forward to hearing back from him on whether or not we had some success in London,” Bruce noted.
It is not yet known whether the US president’s other special envoy, Steven Witkoff, who has met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin three times in recent months and is expected to meet with him again this week, will attend.
On 17 April, talks involving Ukraine, the United States, France, Britain and Germany on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine were held in Paris. The next round of talks is scheduled for 23 April in London.
On 20 April, US President Donald Trump expressed hope that Ukraine and Russia would conclude an agreement next week. He also added that after that both countries would “start doing big business with the United States, which is prosperous, and make a fortune.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Ukraine is under pressure to respond this week to a series of ideas from the Trump administration on how to end the war in Ukraine, including potential U.S. recognition of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and removing Kiev from the list of NATO candidates.
According to the publication’s sources, these ideas were outlined in a confidential document presented to Ukrainian representatives in Paris on 17 April. They were also presented to European officials during the one-day meeting. The USA is now waiting for Kiev’s response, which is expected to come at meetings of US, Ukrainian and European officials in London this week.