Ukraine wanted to discuss 30-day ceasefire, not Trump's peace plan, at London talks — Axios

At the now-postponed meeting scheduled for Wednesday in London with U.S. and European officials, Ukraine's delegation intended to focus on negotiating a 30-day ceasefire — rather than discussing the Trump administration's proposed peace plan — according to new reporting from Axios.

A U.S. official involved in the talks told the outlet that the Ukrainian delegation had begun to hint at this shift in focus in the final 24 hours before the meeting. “The decision was made for the secretary to not travel to London. Instead, the U.S. delegation will continue to engage in conversations with U.K. and Ukrainian counterparts,” he said.

According to the official, Washington's framework agreement designed to “get us closer to reaching an end to the war” was developed by Rubio and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Axios reports that the plan includes formal U.S. recognition of occupied Crimea as Russian territory and Ukraine agreeing not to join NATO. The proposal was presented to the Ukrainian delegation during talks in Paris on April 17 as the United States’s “final offer,” the article says. The White House had previously indicated it was prepared to walk away from peace talks if a deal wasn’t reached soon.

A source close to the Ukrainian government told Axios that Kyiv viewed the U.S. proposal as biased towards Moscow. “The proposal says very clearly what tangible gains Russia gets, but only vaguely and generally says what Ukraine is going to get,” the source said.