Rubio, Witkoff to travel to France this week for Ukraine talks

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are set to travel to Paris later this week for high-level meetings on ending the war in Ukraine, the U.S. State Department said on April 16.

Rubio and Witkoff will be in the French capital from April 16 to 18 for talks with their European counterparts to “advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war,” according to the statement.

Witkoff is expected to meet directly with French President Emmanuel Macron, while Rubio will hold separate discussions with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Politico earlier reported on April 16, citing two undisclosed official sources. After the meetings, Rubio is scheduled to depart for Africa.

The visit comes on the heels of Witkoff's April 11 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. The talks reportedly focused on a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, with Witkoff later describing the discussion as "compelling."

Speaking to Fox News on April 14, Witkoff said the two sides explored a possible deal centered on the status of "so-called five territories."

Though Witkoff did not name the territories directly, he appeared to refer to Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, and the partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. Moscow declared the annexation of the latter four regions in 2022, despite not fully controlling any of them.

"This peace deal is about these so-called five territories," Witkoff said. "But there's so much more to it. I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very important for the world at large."

France is leading the European push for stronger security guarantees for Ukraine, including the deployment of a so-called "reassurance force" if hostilities are paused.

Macron has publicly backed the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine — not for combat, but to help train forces, rebuild infrastructure, and reinforce stability along the Dnipro River, far from the front line.

The reassurance force, first proposed by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in early March, is backed by a "coalition of the willing" involving some 30 countries, six of which voiced readiness to commit their troops.

Ukraine-US talks on minerals deal going ‘in a positive mood,’ Zelensky says

“When the teams are ready, they will present what they have worked out. So far, both sides have ended the meetings in a positive mood,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy