A high-level Ukraine peace summit scheduled for Wednesday in London was abruptly downgraded after several top diplomats, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pulled out of the talks, raising fresh questions about Western unity on the war\u2019s endgame. Rubio\u2019s last-minute cancellation\u2014announced just hours before the event\u2014was followed by similar decisions from the foreign ministers of France and Germany, leaving the summit to proceed with lower-level officials instead.<\/p>\n
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, who clarified the change was purely logistical, confirmed Tuesday that although initially scheduled to travel, Rubio would reschedule his UK visit in the coming months after speaking with his British counterpart.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK in the coming months,\u201d Rubio posted on X.<\/p>\n
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Following this, Foreign ministers from France and Germany have also cancelled their planned visit to UK for the talks. With the absence, the high-level ministerial summit has been downgraded to meetings among more junior officials from the participating countries.<\/p>\n
Despite the scaled-back format, Ukraine\u2019s foreign and defence ministers travelled to London for bilateral discussions with their British counterparts, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Defence Secretary John Healey, which began on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Britain and France have proposed leading a 30-country strong \u201creassurance force\u201d to be deployed in Ukraine after a ceasefire designed to prevent a future outbreak of fighting, though Russia has said in the past it objected to this.<\/p>\n
The development follows a\u00a0Financial Times report suggesting that Russia may be prepared to halt its invasion along the current front lines and abandon claims to territories it does not occupy\u2014provided the US recognises its sovereignty over Crimea.<\/p>\n
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However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report, telling state media, \u201ca lot of fakes are published nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n
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