Top Trump officials will hold talks with Europeans on the Russia-Ukraine war

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio talks to the reporters at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, will travel to Paris this week for talks with European allies on U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The State Department said Rubio and Witkoff would be in the French capital Thursday for the meetings. The officials will have “talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement Wednesday.

Rubio also will “discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region,” she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Rubio and Witkoff, according to Macron’s office. They also will hold talks with Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Iranian nuclear program.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is visiting Italy later in the week, meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She is scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday.

The meetings come as concerns grow about Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia as the U.S. seeks to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine. There is wariness about other Trump administration moves, from tariffs on some of its closest partners to rhetoric about NATO and Greenland.

Rubio and Witkoff have helped lead U.S. efforts to seek peace more than three years after Russia launched the war. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia, and Witkoff met last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow and Kyiv agreed last month to implement a 30-day halt on strikes on energy facilities, but Russia has kept up daily strikes.

Both parties have differed on the start time for stopping strikes and alleged daily breaches by the other side. Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed. Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine.

In a sign of Witkoff’s broad portfolio as Trump seeks to broker peace deals from Ukraine to the Middle East, the envoy held negotiations last weekend with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi over Tehran’s advancing nuclear program. More talks are expected Saturday.

Matthew Lee, The Associated Press