By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend talks in London aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday, after earlier saying he planned to travel to London.
Bruce, speaking to reporters at a regular news briefing, said the talks will go ahead and that President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg would attend the discussions.
It was unclear whether the absence of Washington’s top diplomat meant that Trump had downgraded Washington’s expectations from the meeting, after saying on Sunday that he hopes Moscow and Kyiv will make a deal this week to end the conflict in Ukraine.
“In this particular instance, while the meetings in London are still occurring, he will not be attending. But that is not a statement regarding the meetings. It’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,” Bruce told reporters at a regular news briefing.
“General Kellogg is there, and so he will be having those conversations.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Bruce said in an interview on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” program that she was leaving along with Rubio for London to continue talks, adding: “London has potential, and this is a good open door.”
The decision comes after warnings that the U.S. would walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
Since taking office in January, Trump has upended U.S. foreign policy, pressing Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire while easing many of the measures the Biden administration had taken to punish Russia for its 2022 full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
The U.S. president has repeatedly said that he wants to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine by May, arguing the U.S. must end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and risks a direct confrontation between the U.S. and nuclear-armed Russia.
Europe has been increasingly concerned over the Trump administration’s overtures towards Moscow, after the failure so far of Trump’s efforts to secure a ceasefire in the war.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Simon Lewis; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis, editing by Deepa Babington)
