London talks to obtain a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia have been demoted and will no longer include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
On Wednesday, the meeting will take place among the senior officials of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ukraine and the United States, while the British Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lammy will organize a bilateral meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Trump’s Ukrainian envoy, General Keith Kellogg, attends talks instead of Witkoff and Rubio, who qualified Wednesday “technical meetings” talks.
The American Secretary of State will rather focus on talks in Moscow this week, because the pace of diplomatic efforts to end the war is accelerating.
There are growing speculations that Russia could be willing to stop its invasion along the current front lines in exchange for important concessions.
However, there is little clarity on the management of the latest discussions or if they will succeed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky excluded to recognize occupied Crimea as Russian territory, after reports suggested that this was considered by the United States and the Kremlin.
Russia intensified its attacks against Ukraine on Wednesday, after a brief lull on Easter when it interrupted the air strikes.
Nine people were killed And dozens of others injured in the eastern Ukrainian city of Marhanets when a Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers. Managers of the southern Kherson region said that a key installation providing electricity had been destroyed after being under repeated Russian attack.
On the eve of the talks on Wednesday in London, Marco Rubio spoke to the British Foreign Minister of what he hoped to be “substantial and good technical meetings”, adding that he would reprovate his scheduled trip to the United Kingdom in the coming months.
Lammy described the conversation of “productive”, taking place before a “critical moment for Ukraine, Great Britain and Euro-Atlantic security” while “discussions continue at the rate”.
The American Secretary of State said on X: “I can’t wait to follow the discussions in progress.”
On Wednesday morning, the British Foreign Ministry confirmed that talks between foreign ministers had been postponed.
“Official level discussions will continue, but these are closed to the media,” the statement said.
The White House said Witkoff would go to Moscow this week for his fourth meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
All this happens in the middle A report in the financial times The newspapers according to which Russia could be ready to stop its invasion along the existing front lines and to abandon the territorial claims to the areas which it currently does not occupy, in exchange for the American recognition of Russian sovereignty on Crimea.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the report, telling State Media that “many false are published today”.
Zelensky said that no type of type had been shared with him and that he rejected the recognition of Crimea as a Russian territory.
“Ukraine does not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There is nothing to say,” he said during a press drop on Tuesday evening.
Addressing the BBC Radio 4 bbc program, Yuriy Sak, advisor to the Ukraine Ministry of Strategic Industries, said that it was “not productive to discuss” these reports and added that it was “naive” to expect Ukraine to change its position on “non -negotiable” problems such as Crimea.
Sak added that Ukrainian negotiators would attend the London meeting on a “very clear and close mandate” to make a cease-fire which “will open the way for new talks”.
Putin called a temporary ceasefire for the Easter weekend, but British defense secretary John Healey told the House of Commons on Tuesday that British military information had found no proof of a break in the attacks.
“While Putin said he had declared a Easter truce, he broke it,” he said. “While Putin says he wants peace, he rejected a complete ceasefire and even if Putin says he wants to end the fighting, he continues to play time in negotiations.”
Healey added that he could “confirm that Russian military progress” “slowed down” while the country continued to “put pressure on Ukraine on a number of fronts”.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or injured from all sides since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and nearly seven million Ukrainians are currently listed as refugees global.
The conflict dates back more than a decade until 2014, when the pro-Russian president of Ukraine was overthrown. Russia then annexed the Crimea and supported by militants in bloody fights in eastern Ukraine.
