Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided on Tuesday to skip the next stage of the Ukrainian cease-fire talks, while Ukraine rebuffed one of President Trump’s key proposals for a deal that would halt the fighting with Russia.
Negotiators from the United States, Europe and Ukraine will still meet in London on Wednesday to continue hammering out a cease-fire proposal. But the back-to-back developments are a double blow, raising fresh questions about how much progress is being made toward winding down the three-year war.
Mr. Rubio took part in a meeting on Ukraine last week in Paris, but afterward warned that Mr. Trump was growing impatient with the peacemaking process and might move on to “other priorities.”
While in Paris, two European officials said, the negotiators were briefed on the Trump administration’s framework for a cease-fire deal, which includes demands that Ukraine recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea and rules out NATO membership for Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told reporters on Tuesday that he was open to talks with Russia once a cease-fire was in effect, but that Ukraine would not accept any deal that recognized Moscow’s legal control of Crimea.
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Mr. Zelensky said at a news conference. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our Constitution.”
Mr. Trump, who once said he would broker an end to the war within 24 hours, has veered between confidence and frustration in his public statements. On Sunday, he wrote on social media that Ukraine and Russia could “make a deal this week.” That was a shift from a few days earlier, when he told reporters that he would “take a pass” if the two sides did not close the gaps between them.
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