{"id":134801,"date":"2025-04-23T16:04:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/high-profile-ukraine-peace-talks-collapse-after-marco-rubio-and-steve-witkoff-pull-out-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T16:04:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:04:01","slug":"high-profile-ukraine-peace-talks-collapse-after-marco-rubio-and-steve-witkoff-pull-out-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/high-profile-ukraine-peace-talks-collapse-after-marco-rubio-and-steve-witkoff-pull-out-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"High-profile Ukraine peace talks collapse after Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff pull out – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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LONDON \u2014 High-level talks<\/a> aimed at bringing a pause to fighting in Ukraine<\/a> disintegrated Wednesday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out, dealing a blow to Kyiv\u2019s hopes for a short-term peace agreement.
While ministerial talks that had been planned in London fell apart, President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy to Ukraine<\/a>,<\/a> Keith Kellogg<\/a>, still planned to meet with Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who arrived in London early Wednesday along the Ukrainian defense and foreign ministers.
\u201cDespite everything, we continue working for peace,\u201d Yermak said in a post on X<\/a>.
The setback comes during a week in which the Trump administration has doubled down its efforts to push Kyiv and Moscow toward a truce. Next week marks 100 days of Trump’s second presidential term, and he promised to end the war<\/a> on his first day back in office. Rubio suggested last week that the United States may walk away <\/a>from ceasefire efforts, failing any further progress.
“The downgrading is significant,” said Dr. Bence N\u00e9meth, a senior lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King\u2019s College London, citing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s rejection of the idea that Russia could maintain control of Crimea as part of any deal. <\/strong>
Rubio and Witkoff’s absence “suggests that Washington is increasingly disinterested in drawn-out, multilateral negotiations,” N\u00e9meth added. “This is not just about diplomacy fatigue. It also signals a hard pivot: The U.S. is not positioning itself as a neutral mediator.”
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed Tuesday that Rubio would skip the meeting hours after saying the opposite. \u201cThat is not a statement regarding the meetings. It\u2019s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,\u201d he said.
Despite initial plans to attend the scheduled talks, neither Rubio nor Witkoff were in London on Wednesday, a European diplomat told NBC News.
The British Foreign Ministry issued said in a statement that \u201cthe\u00a0Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0peace talks meeting with foreign ministers today is being postponed,” with top officials from France and Germany also confirming their absence.
As well as meeting with Kellogg, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X <\/a>that he, Yermak and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with the British foreign and defense ministers.
Yulia Svyrydenko, the country\u2019s deputy prime minister, added in a post on X<\/a> that Ukraine was ready to negotiate, \u201cbut not to surrender.\u201d
\u201cOur people will not accept a frozen conflict disguised as peace,\u201d Svyrydenko wrote.
Expectations that Kyiv and Moscow would make a deal to end their three-year war<\/a> this week remained low after the U.S. presented Ukraine and its European allies with peace proposals last week in Paris that both sides saw as unacceptable, according to NBC News\u2019 international partner, Sky News.
Under a \u201cterms sheet\u201d offered by Rubio and Witkoff, a land-for-peace deal would recognize Russia\u2019s currently illegal annexation of Crimea and work toward lifting European Union sanctions on Russia. Both parties have since rejected the terms.
After months of upbeat statements on indirect U.S.-led talks, but limited practical engagement, Russian\u00a0President Vladimir\u00a0Putin<\/a> on Tuesday suggested for the first time that he would be open to bilateral ceasefire talks with Zelenskyy<\/a>.
The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Putin had also offered to halt fighting along current front lines, leaving around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory in Russian hands.
Zelenskyy has not responded to such a suggestion but he rejected the suggestion Tuesday that his country would give up its claim to Crimea.
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to talk about here,\u201d he said of the disputed peninsula in a media conference. \u201cThis is against our Constitution.\u201d
The issue of Crimea may well be one of the most difficult points of difference to overcome, said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
“I think it will be extraordinarily difficult, bordering on political suicide, for him [Zelenskyy] to commit to paper on things like giving up Crimea,” Savill said. That said, “Ukraine is not going to recapture Crimea anytime soon. Ukraine is unlikely to be a NATO member anytime soon.”
“There might be some formulation [of a deal] that effectively kicks those into the long grass,” Savill added, with the caveat that “the terms of any deal at the moment are not going to be particularly favorable to Ukraine.”
Despite the collapse of Wednesday’s talks, Putin is still planning on another meeting with Witkoff in Moscow this week, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
In a media conference Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed the Trump administration’s continuing mediation efforts.
“We continue our contacts,” he said. “Still, of course, there are many details regarding the settlement, a lot of details which need to be discussed, where we need to bring positions closer to one another.\u201d
Before Rubio and Witkoff changed their plans, Britain and France \u2014 two leaders of Europe\u2019s \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d \u2014 had originally hoped instead to negotiate security guarantees and reconstruction projects with the U.S., and provide details of plans to ramp up their defense spending.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday that Europe would attempt to make clear to the U.S. what their \u201cred lines\u201d would be in any negotiations and settlement with Russia. A French diplomatic source later said that Barrot would not be able to travel to London due to a scheduling conflict.
British Foreign Minister David Lammy said Tuesday that he had held a \u201cproductive\u201d phone call with Rubio.
Astha Rajvanshi is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London. Previously, she worked as a staff writer covering international news for TIME.
Daniele Hamamdjian is an NBC foreign correspondent based in London.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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