High-level talks in London over the war in Ukraine fail

A meeting scheduled for Wednesday between top American, British, French and Ukrainian diplomats to push for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine was canceled at the last minute.

The cancellation reportedly came amid few signs of progress in international efforts to end the more than three-year-old war, the Telegraph reports.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the talks in London would only include lower-ranking officials, after the US State Department said on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unable to attend due to a scheduling issue.

Rubio's sudden cancellation raised doubts about the direction of the negotiations.

This came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out the possibility of handing over the territory to Russia as part of any potential peace deal.

The Ukrainian leader spoke out Tuesday in response to reports that Donald Trump's administration was proposing a deal that would allow Russia to keep occupied Ukrainian territory as part of a possible peace deal.

As media outlets point out, even reaching a limited 30-day ceasefire has been beyond the negotiators' reach, as both sides have continued to attack each other in a devastating war along the 1000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and have launched long-range attacks.

US President Donald Trump has pushed to end the war and said last week that negotiations were "reaching a climax".

The comment came after Rubio suggested the US could soon withdraw from the negotiations if they do not make progress. /Telegraph/