London talks aimed at securing a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia have been downgraded and will no longer include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
The meeting yesterday will instead take place among senior officials from the UK, France, Germany, Ukraine, and the US, while UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy will host a bilateral meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Gen Keith Kellogg, is attending the talks instead of Witkoff and Rubio, who referred to yesterday’s talks as “technical meetings”.
The US secretary of state will instead focus on talks in Moscow this week, as the pace of diplomatic efforts to end the war quickens.
There is growing speculation that Russia might be willing to halt its invasion along current front lines in return for significant concessions.
However, there is little clarity about where the latest talks are heading or whether they will succeed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out recognising occupied Crimea as Russian territory, after reports suggested this was being considered by the US and the Kremlin.
Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine on Wednesday, after a brief lull over Easter when it halted air strikes.
Nine people were killed and dozens more wounded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Marhanets when a Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers.
Officials in the southern region of Kherson said a key facility supplying electricity had been destroyed after coming under repeated Russian attack.
The UK Foreign Office confirmed on Wednesday that talks between foreign ministers had been postponed. “Official level talks will continue but these are closed to media,” the statement said.
British diplomats said they were not entirely clear why Rubio and Witkoff had pulled out of the London talks.
The US state department blamed logistical reasons, but it was clear the decision was last-minute and left the Foreign Office wrongfooted.
Marco Rubio spoke to the UK foreign secretary on Tuesday evening about what he hoped would be “substantive and good technical meetings”, adding that he would reschedule his planned trip to UK in the coming months.
Lammy called the conversation “productive”, taking place ahead of a “critical moment for Ukraine, Britain and Euro-Atlantic Security” as “talks continue at pace”.
The US secretary of state said on X: “I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions.”
The US decision may have been because the Americans felt they had nothing new to say since they last met in Paris last week – or they may have realised the Ukrainians were likely to reject the latest US ceasefire plan and did not want to hear bad news.
The White House said Witkoff would travel to Moscow this week for his fourth meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.