Rubio to skip Ukraine talks as Zelensky rejects key detail of US ceasefire proposal

CNN
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend talks in London on Wednesday aimed at working toward an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, as Kyiv signaled it would reject a key detail of the Trump administration’s proposal to end the three-year conflict.

Rubio had been expected to take part in the discussions with Ukrainian, UK and European officials, but State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that he would no longer attend due to “logistical issues.”

President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, will represent the US instead, Bruce said. The talks follow a meeting in Paris last week in which officials from the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany discussed a US framework for a ceasefire.

The proposal includes recognizing Russia’s control of Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, an official familiar with the framework told CNN. It would also put a ceasefire in place along the front lines of the war, the official said.

Any move to recognize Russia’s control of Crimea would reverse a decade of US policy.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear Tuesday that he was open to talks with Russia, but that Kyiv would not accept a deal that recognizes Moscow’s control of Crimea.

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” he told reporters. “There is nothing to talk about. It is against our constitution.”

Rubio said in a post on X that he had a “productive conversation” with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is hosting Wednesday’s meeting, and that he “(looks) forward to following up” with the United Kingdom and Ukraine at a later point.

The talks in London come after US officials have publicly voiced frustration over the lack of progress at bringing an end to the war.

Trump has said he would “have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it” from both sides for the US to continue negotiations, after Rubio warned last week that Washington could walk away from its efforts to end the conflict if there were no signs of progress.

The broad framework has been presented to both sides, Rubio and the State Department have said, to determine whether the differences can be narrowed in a short timeframe. There are still pieces of the framework to be filled out and the US plans to work with the Europeans and the Ukrainians on that this week, the official told CNN.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow this week to continue negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House said Tuesday. The Kremlin confirmed Witkoff’s visit, but did not disclose further details, according to Russian state media.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday the negotiations were “hopefully moving in the right direction,” and declined to say what “stepping back” from the peace efforts might look like for the US.

Moscow has previously stalled on negotiations and rejected an earlier US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire agreed to by Kyiv.

However, under pressure from Trump, Ukraine and Russia have expressed willingness to negotiate for the first time in years; the two sides have not held direct talks since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

On Monday, Putin raised the prospect of holding direct talks with Ukraine about a ceasefire that would halt striking civilian targets, but said further discussion was needed on how to define a civilian target.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed the Russian president’s remarks, saying “(Putin) had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side,” Reuters reported, citing Russia’s Interfax news agency.