US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not participate in the upcoming London talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, as confirmed by State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Tuesday.
Initially, Rubio was expected to join European, American, and Ukrainian representatives in London for negotiations on a ceasefire in the wake of the Russian invasion, following a preliminary meeting last week in Paris.
However, Bruce highlighted that Rubio’s decision to abstain is due to "logistical issues with his schedule." The United States will be represented by their special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
According to insiders cited by The Washington Post, the US will propose recognising Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula, in 2014, in exchange for Russia halting its offensive in Ukraine.
The Financial Times also reported from anonymous sources that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a similar proposal to the US in early April during a meeting with the American special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
Moscow is reportedly willing to halt the current fighting if Crimea’s annexation is recognised, suggesting that Russia would relinquish claims over the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, large parts of which it currently controls.
Ukraine continues to regard Crimea as its territory, with President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly asserting that he will not cede land to Moscow.
