The State Department announced today that “Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ambassador Steve Witkoff will travel to Paris, France, April 16-18 for talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed. While in Paris, he will also discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region.”
Attention will be focused on how Rubio handles this mission, given his known ambitions, and proclivities to be an anti-Russia, -China, -Iran hawk (among other nations on his target list). The Wall Street Journal singled out Rubio and President Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, as among Trump’s senior advisers who are urging him to treat Moscow’s peace claims with skepticism, in an April 14 story, alleging infighting within Trump’s team on how to handle Russia. The two are reported to be retailing the British-dictated line, that Russian “dictator” Vladimir Putin has shown no genuine interest in ending the war, and that Trump needs to adopt a firmer stance on the Kremlin’s demands that Ukraine cede territory.
The Journal’s sources—unnamed officials from the Trump team—say that Trump continues to back special envoy Steve Witkoff, who claims Putin wants peace following their meeting in Moscow. They also assert that even the Trump advisers who argue for a tougher approach “support his goal of stopping the three-year war.”
