LONDON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided Tuesday to skip the next stage of the Ukrainian ceasefire talks, while Ukraine rebuffed one of President Donald Trump’s key proposals for a deal that would halt the fighting with Russia.
Negotiators from the United States, Europe and Ukraine will still meet in London on Wednesday to continue hammering out a ceasefire proposal. But the back-to-back developments are a double blow, raising fresh questions about how much progress is being made toward winding down the three-year war.
Rubio took part in a meeting on Ukraine last week in Paris, but afterward warned that Trump was growing impatient with the peacemaking process and might move on to “other priorities.”
While in Paris, two European officials said, the negotiators were briefed on the Trump administration’s framework for a ceasefire deal, which includes demands that Ukraine recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and rules out NATO membership for Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine told reporters Tuesday that he was open to talks with Russia once a ceasefire was in effect, but that Ukraine would not accept any deal that recognized Moscow’s legal control of Crimea.
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.”
Trump, who once said he would broker an end to the war within 24 hours, has veered between confidence and frustration in his public statements. On Sunday, he wrote on social media that Ukraine and Russia could “make a deal this week.” That was a shift from a few days earlier, when he told reporters that he would “take a pass” if the two sides did not close the gaps between them.
Rubio left the meeting with Ukrainian and European officials in Paris sounding an even more ominous note. “We’re not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end,” he told reporters.
The State Department said that Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, would still attend the London meeting. But it is not clear whether Steve Witkoff, the president’s envoy to Russia, will be there. Witkoff has met President Vladimir Putin of Russia three times since February and is expected to visit Moscow again later this week.
Under mounting pressure from Trump, the Russians and Ukrainians have both publicly signaled a willingness to negotiate for the first time since their failed peace talks in the early months of Russia’s invasion in 2022. That would introduce a new platform for diplomacy that has so far been dominated by Trump.
Zelenskyy said Monday that he was “ready for any conversation” about a ceasefire that would halt strikes on civilian infrastructure. Putin said further discussion was needed about how to define a civilian target, “possibly in a bilateral format.”
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, clarified that “the president specifically meant negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side.” On Tuesday, he added that there were “nuances” in Ukraine’s most recent ceasefire proposal that were worthy of discussion.
On Saturday, Putin declared a daylong truce for the Easter holiday, a gesture aimed at mollifying Trump and putting pressure on Zelenskyy to follow suit. While each side accused the other of violating the truce, Ukrainians officials acknowledged a general reduction in the intensity of Russian attacks.
The State Department sought to play down Rubio’s decision to skip the gathering in London. “That is not a statement regarding the meetings,” said a spokesperson, Tammy Bruce. “It’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule.”
Earlier in the day, Bruce had confirmed that Rubio would attend. “London has potential,” she said on the Fox Business Network, “and this is a good open door.”
The diminished American lineup is a symbolic setback to the efforts of the Europeans to have a seat at the table in a peace negotiation. In Paris, Rubio said that Britain, France and Germany had played a constructive role in developing proposals. Representatives of those three countries will be in London, though Zelenskyy also does not plan to attend.
Zelenskyy spoke on Monday with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, who has been trying to marshal what he calls a coalition of the willing among Europeans and others, to help secure any peace agreement.
“The prime minister reiterated his ironclad support for Ukraine,” Downing Street said in a readout of the phone call. “He said that the U.K. supports Ukraine’s calls for Russia to commit to a full ceasefire and that now is the time for Putin to show he is serious about ending his brutal war.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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