US State Department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday that Secretary of State, Marco Rubio will not attend talks in London aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, after earlier saying he planned to travel to London.
Rubio, after speaking with his British counterpart, said he was rescheduling his trip to the United Kingdom to coming months.
“I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK in the coming months,” he said in a post on X.
According to him, the talks will go ahead, saying President Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg would attend the discussions.
It was not clear whether the absence of Rubio 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.
“General Kellogg is there, and so he will be having those conversations,” Bruce told reporters at a regular news briefing.
Bruce, earlier on Tuesday said in an interview on Fox Business Network's “Mornings with Maria” programme that she was leaving along with Rubio for London to continue talks, adding that London has potential and this is a good open door.
The decision comes after warnings that the US would walk away from efforts to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
Trump, since his second return to the White House on January 20, has upended US 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 Republican has repeatedly said that he wants to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine by May, arguing the US must end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and risks a direct confrontation between the US and nuclear-armed Russia.
