Free Republic

President Trump no longer plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a second in-person summit “in the immediate future” after Russia rejected his demand to stop the war in Ukraine along the current battle lines. The White House announcement followed a Monday call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which a source familiar with the conversation said demonstrated the Kremlin’s unwillingness to commit to Trump’s strategy for peace. -snip- Trump exhorted both sides to lay down their arms following the third White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky since Trump returned to...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Gen. Keith Kellogg kicked off high-stakes talks in France Thursday with European and Ukrainian officials — marking the first time that both envoys were at the negotiation table to discuss an end to the war. The trio met with French President Emmanuel Macron as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak, senior administration officials told The Post. The State Department had announced Wednesday that Rubio and Witkoff would make the trip to France, but gave a vague description of the visit in a...