Rubio, Witkoff withdraw from Ukraine peace summit

It’s unsure if the London peace talks will take place without the US Secretary of State, after Volodymyr Zelensky rejected a US proposal to recognise Russia’s control of Crimea.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky leaves after delivering a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff have pulled out of Ukraine peace talks on the eve of a major summit in London hosted by David Lammy, the British foreign secretary.

The US Secretary of Atate cancelled his plans to attend the one-day summit, days after voicing his frustration at the difficulties of ending the war, The London Times reports.

British officials had been planning for Mr Rubio and Mr Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, to attend as late as Tuesday morning.

However the US delegation abruptly withdrew from the summit on Tuesday afternoon and it remains unclear whether the talks would go ahead without Mr Rubio.

Tammy Bruce, the spokeswoman for the US state department, said: “While the meetings in London are still occurring, he will not be attending.”

General Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s Russia-Ukraine envoy, was in London and would attend, Ms Bruce added.

The surprise move came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on a US proposal to recognise Russia’s control of Crimea as part of a ceasefire agreement, throwing into doubt Donald Trump’s efforts to bring an end to the war.

“Ukraine will not legally recognise the occupation of Crimea,” Mr Zelensky said at a press conference on Tuesday. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.”

Mr Zelensky’s dismissal upends Mr Trump’s latest gambit to halt the war in Ukraine — now in its fourth year — and casts new uncertainty on the future of the relationship between Kyiv and Washington, which Mr Trump has made conditional on a quick deal.

American officials had presented a series of ideas for ending the war, including the Crimea proposal, to Ukrainian officials last week and expected an answer on Wednesday at a summit in London, where Ukrainian, US and European officials will gather.

The Ukrainian President also said Ukraine would only hold direct talks with Russia once a ceasefire was in place.

“After the ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format,” Mr Zelensky told journalists at a briefing a day before key talks in London on a potential Ukraine settlement.

Mr Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours, has failed since his return to office three months ago to wrangle concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his troops’ offensive in Ukraine.

Mr Trump said over the weekend that he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides were anywhere close to agreeing even a ceasefire, let alone a wider long-term settlement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned Tuesday against rushing into a speedy ceasefire, telling a state TV reporter that the issue was too “complex” for a quick fix.

“It is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short time frame,” he said.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov meanwhile told state media that US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff was expected this week in Moscow, his fourth visit to Russia since Mr Trump took office.

Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war started in February 2022.

After rejecting a US-Ukrainian offer for a full and unconditional ceasefire last month, Mr Putin announced a surprise Easter truce over the weekend.

Fighting dipped during the 30-hour period but Russia launched fresh attacks on residential areas on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.

Kyiv and its allies dismissed the truce as a public relations exercise from Mr Putin.

“The Easter truce that he announced somewhat unexpectedly was a marketing operation, a charm operation aimed at preventing President Trump from becoming impatient and angry,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told FranceInfo radio.

London meeting

Ukraine’s allies will meet in London on Wednesday and are expected to discuss the contours of a possible deal they could all get behind.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the London talks due to scheduling issues, a State Department spokeswoman said, adding that US envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg would take part.

European leaders are scrambling to work out how to support Ukraine should Mr Trump pull Washington’s vital military and financial backing.

Mr Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be “an unconditional ceasefire”.

He proposed to Russia on Sunday a halt of missile and drones strikes against civilian facilities for at least 30 days.

While saying he would “analyse” the idea, Mr Putin threw doubt on it 24 hours later by accusing Kyiv of using civilian facilities for military purposes.

He held open the prospect of bilateral talks on the topic, though the Kremlin said there were no fixed plans to engage with Kyiv.

“There are no concrete plans (to talk), there is readiness from Putin to discuss this question,” Mr Peskov said Tuesday.

“If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target,” he added.

Russian attacks

Russia hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Myrnograd with drones Tuesday, killing three people and wounding two, local authorities said.

One person was reported dead and 23 wounded after two guided aerial bombs pounded the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region’s governor said.

Photos from Ukraine’s emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man tended to by medics on a stretcher, with bandages around his head and arms.

“One guided aerial bomb hit an infrastructure facility, another one hit a densely populated neighbourhood, a residential building directly,” Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.

Russian strikes wounded another six in the southern city of Kherson and seven in Kharkiv in the northeast, officials said.

The Russian army meanwhile claimed to have captured a village in the eastern Donetsk region, where its troops are advancing.

Russia has pressed on with a grinding advance in recent months in southern and eastern Ukraine and recaptured much of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip.

There were no ongoing discussions on any new US aid packages with the Trump administration, Mr Zelensky said.

In Paris last week, Mr Rubio presented Washington’s plan for ending the conflict, though both he and Mr Trump warned that Washington’s patience was wearing thin and could lead it to withdraw.

Many in Ukraine fear any US-brokered settlement would benefit Russia