Rubio will not attend Ukraine peace talks in London
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Bruce said that President Trump's Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg was in London and would attend
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not be attending talks in London on the war in Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday, after earlier saying he planned to travel to London.
Bruce, speaking to reporters at a regular news briefing, said the talks will go ahead and that President Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg was in London and would attend.
"Well, I do know, yes, that General (Keith) Kellogg is there, and so he will be having those conversations. So we look forward to hearing back from him about whether or not we've had some success in London," she added.
After speaking with his British counterpart, Rubio said he was rescheduling his trip to the United Kingdom to coming months.
"I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK in the coming months," he said in a post on X.
It was unclear whether the absence of Washington's top diplomat meant that Trump had downgraded Washington's expectations from the meeting, after saying on Sunday that he hopes Moscow and Kyiv will make a deal this week to end the conflict in Ukraine.
"In this particular instance, while the meetings in London are still occurring, he will not be attending. But that is not a statement regarding the meetings. It's a statement about logistical issues in his schedule," Bruce told reporters at a regular news briefing.
MAJOR SHAKE-UP OF US STATE DEPARTMENT
The Trump administration is proposing a major overhaul of the US State Department that would eliminate more than 100 offices, including some working on war crimes and rights advocacy to ensure the agency is in line with President Donald Trump's "America First" priorities.
The plan, which Congress has been notified about, would eliminate 132 of the department's 734 bureaus and offices, an internal State Department memo seen by Reuters said. Undersecretaries will submit plans to reduce staff by 15%, the document added.
It was not immediately clear how many people would be laid off as a result of the revamp, but a report in online publication the Free Press, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X, said an additional 700 positions would be eliminated in the shuttered offices.
The shake-up comes as part of an unprecedented push by Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk to shrink the federal government, saying U.S. taxpayer money is misspent. The effort has led to the firing of thousands of government employees.
Spokesperson Bruce said that the proposal was a road map and things could still change. The closure of a bureau focused on a specific issue does not mean work on that issue would be completely stopped, she said, without detailing how those issues would remain department priorities.
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