Officials from Ukraine, US and UK meet in London
LONDON—Officials from Britain, the United States, European nations and Ukraine met in London on Wednesday to push for a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
British defense Sec. John Healey said the meeting follows talks last week in Paris and will include “what a ceasefire might look like and how to secure peace in the long term.”
But a plan for the talks to involve foreign ministers was scrapped at the last minute after the US State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended the Paris talks, was unable to come because of a scheduling issue.
UK foreign Sec. David Lammy posted on X that the talks would now include “officials.” Those attending include retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
It came amid growing speculation that the United States will press Ukraine to cede territory to Russia as part of a potential peace agreement.
‘Our land’
During similar talks last week in Paris, US officials presented a proposal that included allowing Russia to keep control of occupied Ukrainian territory as part of a deal, according to a European official familiar with the matter.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed back against that idea, saying: “There is nothing to talk about—it is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people.”
Some European allies are wary of the American proposal. But there’s also acknowledgment by some allies that Russia is firmly entrenched wholly or partially in five regions of Ukraine—Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
If the goal is to obtain a ceasefire immediately, “it should be based on the line of contact as it is,” said a senior French official.
The official was not authorized to be publicly named and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
