European and U.S. officials met in London for Ukrainian peace talks

U.S. vs. Russia: The First Five-Day War Between the Two Wars in Ukraine – The Challenge for the American-European Dialogue

The United States is part of a group of officials from several countries that are in London today.

While Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the latest talks, President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, retired lieutenant Gen. is expected to attend.

It is not clear if the U.S. is trying to stand between these two warring parties or is just trying to create a peace framework that Russia will buy-in to.

The challenge for the ongoing dialogue between American and European leaders — as it has been since the White House argument between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — is that the U.S. expects Ukraine to make major concessions to Russia.

Zelenskyy was criticized by Trump in a Truth Social post for declining to recognize the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea by Russia.

Members of the U.S. administration have floated proposals in recent days that suggest Ukraine should be prepared to recognize Russia as the holder of territory it annexed back in 2014, including the Crimean Peninsula, or that Russia seized in the larger invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022.

But nations like France, Germany and the U.K. have continued to insist that support for Ukraine — military, political and economic — is necessary to ensure that Putin is forced to negotiate on more equal terms.

Officials will continue to discuss areas of common ground. Kellogg’s proposals last year that suggested how the United States could increase pressure on Moscow — by further ratcheting economic sanctions, or increasing military aid to Kyiv — seem to have been jettisoned for now.

There will be a fourth face-to-face meeting between President Trump and Putin in Moscow this week, which is a sign that the US will continue to negotiate details of the meeting.

Russian U.S. missile strikes in Kiev, and the destruction of houses in the neighborhood of Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv

The British Foreign Office did not issue a statement about the changing circumstances of the meeting and did not respond to calls or emails seeking comment, which represents a decline in the significance of the talks.

He spoke to Rubio Tuesday night for what he called a “productive” conversation, but the State Department has suggested there is little chance of a breakthrough in London, and senior French and German ministers will no longer be traveling.

The U.S. brokered a 30-day ceasefire for Ukraine last month. Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine during that time. This month, Russian missile strikes killed 20, including nine children, in Zelenskyy’s hometown, the central city of Kryvyi Rih, and another 35 in the northeastern city of Sumy.

On Thursday morning, President Trump took to his social media account to say he was not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv.

“Many houses were destroyed,” said Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko in a video post on the Telegram messaging app. “We are now going through the rubble with our hands, we’re not using machinery. There may be people still under the rubble.”

The drones flew over the neighborhood in the middle of the night, and the air defense tried to shoot them down.

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The peace plan hasn’t been offered by the administration. In public statements, Trump and top officials have said that they want Zelenskyy to cede territory in exchange for security guarantees against future Russian aggression.