Ukraina

 

Rubio to skip Ukraine talks as Zelensky rejects key detail of US proposal

By Todd Symons, CNN

 4 minute read 

Updated 2:39 AM EDT, Wed April 23, 2025

 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a meeting of the Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Task Force at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on Tuesday 

Ken Cedeno/Reuters

CNN — 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend talks in London on Wednesday aimed at working toward an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, as Kyiv signaled it would reject a key detail of the Trump administration’s proposal to end the three-year conflict.

Rubio had been expected to take part in the discussions with Ukrainian, UK and European officials, but State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that he would no longer attend due to “logistical issues.”

President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, will represent the US instead, Bruce said. The talks follow a meeting in Paris last week in which officials from the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany discussed a US framework for a ceasefire.

The proposal includes recognizing Russia’s control of Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, an official familiar with the framework told CNN. It would also put a ceasefire in place along the front lines of the war, the official said.

Any move to recognize Russia’s control of Crimea would reverse a decade of US policy.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear Tuesday that he was open to talks with Russia, but that Kyiv would not accept a deal that recognizes Moscow’s control of Crimea.

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” he told reporters. “There is nothing to talk about. It is against our constitution.”