Afrasianet - British Foreign Secretary David Lamy and U.S. Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio will not attend peace talks in London after Kiev rejected a U.S. plan to recognise Russia's sovereignty over Crimea. 

This came according to what was published by "Sky News",  which continued that "diplomats from Britain, the United States, France, Germany and Ukraine postponed a meeting that was scheduled in London on Wednesday for high-level talks on how to end the Russian war." 

Talks will instead take place between senior officials from the five countries, although Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sebiga is still scheduled to be in the capital and meet his counterpart Lamy.

The downgrade in diplomacy contrasts with intensified pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump and his team on Kiev and Moscow to agree to a ceasefire. The U.S. peace proposal is due to be discussed in London, which is set to see the United States recognize Crimea's accession to Russia, which was rejected by outgoing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

The proposed US plan, as reported by US media at the end of last week, provides for freezing the front lines as part of a peace deal.

Ukraine's allies reportedly hope for security guarantees and reconstruction projects in exchange for any such territorial concessions. The Financial Times reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin "offered to stop fighting along the current frontline, leaving about 20 percent of Ukraine in Russian hands. It is unclear whether Kiev will accept these conditions."

The US president warns against "ignoring" mediation in peace talks if Kiev and Moscow "block" a deal.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that Washington "will abandon the talks unless progress is made within days."

Rubio was due to visit London on Wednesday to meet with Lamy and the foreign ministers of Ukraine, France and Germany, but the visit was postponed on Tuesday, and once it was announced, Paris and Berlin halted their ministers' travel plans to London, and it is believed that the ministerial meeting will take place soon.

Instead, U.S. envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg will participate in discussions in London with senior French and German officials.

Britain and France are leading efforts to ensure that Europe is not sidelined by Trump in Ukraine's peace efforts, and are trying to form a so-called "coalition of the willing" to send British, French and other foreign troops to Ukraine in the wake of any ceasefire to help "peacekeep", although defense experts have questioned the credibility of such a plan without US support.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly stated that the presence of NATO forces on Ukrainian territory, under any banner and in any capacity, poses a threat to Russia, and Moscow will not accept this under any circumstances.

Instead of meeting in person, Minister Lamy had a phone call with Minister Rubio, describing it in a tweet on the social media site X as "constructive",

and writing in his tweet: "The UK is working with the US, Ukraine and Europe for peace and an end to Putin's illegal invasion. The talks continue at an accelerated pace, and officials will meet in London tomorrow (Wednesday). This is a crucial moment for Ukraine, Britain and Euro-Atlantic security."

Rubio tweeted: "Today I had a constructive conversation with British Foreign Secretary David Lamy, in which I expressed my gratitude for hosting the US delegation, led by Special Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg. Our team looks forward to substantive and good technical meetings with our Ukrainian and British counterparts."

"I look forward to following the discussions taking place in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK over the coming months."

US media: Whitkoff will not attend London meeting on Ukraine

The Washington Post reported that US special envoy Steve Whitkoff will not participate in the meeting scheduled for Wednesday in the British capital London on Ukraine. 

The White House had previously confirmed U.S. envoy Whitkoff's visit to Russia this week, and the newspaper report said: "Trump's special envoy. He will not be present (at the meeting in London). The main U.S. representative will be presidential envoy Keith Kellogg."

Earlier, the leader of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, announced that the London negotiations on Ukraine with the participation of representatives of the Kiev regime, as well as the United States, France and Britain, will be held on Wednesday, April 23.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on April 18 that he hoped future meetings with representatives of Europe and Kiev would achieve "more specific" answers on the settlement of the Ukraine conflict. The exact date of the meeting has not yet been set, he said, adding that it will be held early next week.

The New York Post on Saturday quoted a senior administration official as saying that Western countries intend next week in London to agree on the parameters of their proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

French historian: The West failed to defeat Russia in Ukraine and paid the price

French historian Emmanuel Todt stated that Western countries, despite all their collective efforts, have not been able to defeat Russia in Ukraine. 

In an interview with the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, Todd said: "The West pumped billions of dollars into Ukraine, supplying it with weapons, ammunition and more, and yet failed to defeat Russia. This has cost Europe particularly dearly."

The expert explained that Europe has worsened its situation only by engaging in a confrontation with Moscow. He added that the situation continues to deteriorate steadily. "Russia, as I said earlier, has won this war," Todd concluded.

In a similar statement, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last Friday that the West had entered a proxy war in Ukraine, which all reasonable people understand, and it has lost.

In an interview with the Hungarian YouTube channel Öt, Orban said: "The West lost this war, and this has become a heavy burden on the entire Western world. Losing in the war is immense. The fact that it is a proxy war is no longer in doubt among the wise today, and (if it is) it is not sane circles. The Western world is behind the Ukrainians, and it is they who are losing this war. He even lost it."

The Hungarian prime minister noted that U.S. President Donald Trump presents America's exit from the conflict and efforts to settle it as saving the United States from a "very serious defeat."

Orban added: "In Western Europe, the situation is more complicated, because there is no such change. There is continuity, and European leaders dare not admit that they have lost this war. They dragged Europe into a war that eventually led to their defeat."

Earlier, Orban said he had read in the eyes of European leaders during the EU summit an acknowledgement that Ukraine had lost in the conflict.

The Hungarian prime minister also previously stated that Europe and the United States collectively spent 310 billion euros on Ukraine, a "terrifying" amount, and if this money had been invested in the European economy, Europeans would be living much better today, and miracles could have been "done" but this money was "burned."

According to him, by refusing to recognize the new reality in the Ukrainian conflict, the West is making a grave mistake and will pay a high price. 

Russia has in recent years reported unprecedented NATO activity near its western border. NATO is expanding its initiatives and describes this as a "deterrence to Russian aggression."

Moscow has repeatedly warned against strengthening NATO forces in Europe. The Kremlin stressed that Russia posed no threat to anyone, but would not condone any actions that could pose a risk to its interests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly explained that Moscow has no intention of attacking NATO countries, as there is no logic in this.

Putin noted that Western politicians regularly scare their people with the alleged "Russian threat" to distract attention from domestic problems, but "smart people understand very well that these are lies." 

Europe is afraid of what it did to Ukraine

On the danger of Ukraine becoming a center of the illegal arms trade, Vladislav Vorobyov, wrote in "Komsomolskaya Pravda 

In recent weeks, the prospects for a peace settlement in Ukraine have been being discussed with particular vigor. The EU is thinking about what will happen if the parties actually reach specific agreements. Europol analysts, for example, argue that Kiev will inevitably become a global hub for the illicit arms trade.

The numbers mentioned are simply terrifying. European intelligence agencies have discovered that in recent years the Ukrainian armed forces have lost more than 800,000 small arms. Europol does not rule out that most of these weapons may have simply been stolen. Only 66,000 were found while the search was ongoing.

The Times stressed that Ukrainian territory is at risk of becoming a paradise for arms smugglers. British journalists recall how, in Kiev alone, in February and March 2022, more than 25,000 machine guns and nearly 10 million rounds of ammunition were randomly distributed to passers-by. All of this threatens dire consequences for the regime in Europe.

The Secretariat of the Council of the European Union has submitted proposals to the Member States of the European Union to improve the effectiveness of the fight against the illicit circulation of small arms in Ukraine.

At the same time, for some reason, European journalists do not ask the reasonable question in the frequent press conferences at EU headquarters: Since the Ukrainian authorities have previously ignored a large number of different laws and instructions issued by Brussels for years, why did European officials decide that these same authorities would abide by the law this time?