Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS

US Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is still expected to attend, along with Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had arrived in London with Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, who is “likely” to meet Lammy.

“Despite everything, we will work for peace,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.

A Ukraine presidency source later told AFP that the delegation would meet with Kellogg, and that “there will be more meetings with Europeans, different meetings”.

US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow this week.

According to ‘The Financial Times’, President Vladimir Putin told Witkoff he was prepared to halt the invasion and freeze the current front line if Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, annexed in 2014, was recognised.

Peskov responded by saying that “a lot of fakes are being published at the moment”, according to the ‘RIA Novosti’ news agency.

Zelensky said Tuesday that his country would be ready for direct talks with Russia only after a ceasefire, though the Kremlin has said it cannot rush into a ceasefire deal.

Trump promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours but has since failed to secure concessions from Putin to halt his troops in Ukraine.

He said at the weekend he hoped an agreement could be struck “this week”.

Trump ‘frustrated’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had presented a US plan to end the war and discussed it with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a phone conversation after the Paris meeting last week.

Both Rubio and Trump have warned since that the United States could walk away from peace talks unless it saw quick progress.

Trump “wants to see this war end… and he has grown frustrated with both sides of this war, and he’s made that very known”, his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

Rubio had said in Paris he would go to London if he thought his attendance could be useful.

But Lammy wrote on X late Tuesday that he had instead had a “productive call” with Rubio.

Trump proposed an unconditional ceasefire in March, the principle of which was accepted by Kyiv but rejected by Putin.

The White House welcomed a separate agreement by both sides to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days, but the Kremlin has said it considers that moratorium to have expired.

SOURCE :-  NEW INDIAN EXPRESS