US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reversed his decision to attend talks in London beginning on Wednesday, aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
After speaking with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Rubio said he was rescheduling his trip to the United Kingdom to take place in the coming months.
“I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK in the coming months,” he said in a post on X.
US envoy Keith Kellogg, seen here with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, will attend the London talks in place of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. (Photo by Sergei Supinsky/ AFP)The talks will go ahead and US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg will attend in his place, Rubio said.
It is unclear whether the absence of Washington’s top diplomat meant that Trump had downgraded Washington’s expectations from the meeting, after saying on Sunday that he hopes Moscow and Kyiv will make a deal this week to end the conflict in Ukraine.
“In this particular instance, while the meetings in London are still occurring, he will not be attending. But that is not a statement regarding the meetings. It’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.
The shock decision came only hours after Bruce said in an interview on Fox Business Network that she was leaving for London with Rubio, and after warnings that the US would walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
Since taking office in January, Trump has pressured Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire while easing many of the measures the Biden administration had taken to punish Russia for its 2022 full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
The president has repeatedly said that he wants to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine by May but he is hopeful that the two sides “will make a deal this week.”
Meanwhile, new reports claim Russian President Vladimir Putin offered at a meeting in St Petersburg this month to halt Russia’s invasion across the front line and relinquish its claims to full control of four Ukrainian regions.
The Financial Times says the proposal is the first formal indication Putin has given since the war’s early months that Russia could step back from some of its demands.
And US website Axios is reporting that Kellogg will come to the London talks armed with an American-designed peace framework that includes US recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and unofficial recognition of Russian control of nearly all areas it has occupied since the war began.
With Reuters
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Rubio in last-minute withdrawal from Ukraine peace talks in London )
Also on site :
- Omani Minister of Commerce: Omani-Russian relations witness qualitative leap
- Pedestrian fatally struck by Metra BNSF train in west suburbs
- PHOTO COLLECTION: China Auto Show