High-profile Ukraine peace talks collapse after Rubio and Witkoff pull out

LONDON — High-level talks aimed at bringing a pause to fighting in Ukraine disintegrated Wednesday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out of the meeting, dealing a blow to Kyiv’s hopes for a short-term peace agreement.

While ministerial talks that had been planned to take place in London fell apart, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg 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.

“Despite everything, we continue working for peace,” Yermak said in a post on X.

The setback comes during a week in which the Trump administration has doubled down in efforts to push Kyiv and Moscow towards a truce. Next week marks 100 days of a second presidential term for Trump, who promised to end the war on his first day back in office. Rubio suggested last week that the U.S. may walk away from ceasefire efforts failing any further progress.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed Tuesday that Rubio would skip the meeting hours after saying the opposite. “That is not a statement regarding the meetings. It’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,” she said.

Despite initial plans to attend the slated talks, neither Rubio nor Witkoff were in London on Wednesday, a European diplomat told NBC News.

The U.K.’s foreign ministry issued said in a statement that “the Ukraine peace 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, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X that he, Yermak and defense minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with the U.K.’s foreign and defense ministers.

Expectations that Kyiv and Moscow would make a deal to end their three-year-long war 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’ international partner, Sky News.

Under a “terms sheet” offered by Rubio and Witkoff, a land-for-peace deal would recognize Russia’s currently illegal annexation of Crimea and work towards 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 President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday suggested for the first time that he would be open to bilateral ceasefire talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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.

“There’s nothing to talk about here,” he said of the disputed peninsula in a media conference Tuesday. “This is against our Constitution.”

Despite the collapse in Wednesday’s talks, Putin is still planning on another meeting with Witkoff in Moscow this week, according to 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,” Peskov 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.”

Before Rubio and Witkoff changed their plans, the U.K. and France — two leaders of Europe’s “coalition of the willing” — 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 “red lines” 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 a post on X that he had held a “productive” phone call with Rubio and that “the U.K. is working with the U.S., Ukraine and Europe for peace and to put an end to Putin’s illegal invasion.”

Rubio echoed the sentiment, posting that “I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the U.K. in the coming months.”