Just a few days ago, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio headed the negotiations in Geneva with Ukraine’s powerful Andriy Yermak, the Head of the Office of the President. Then, Rubio was celebrated by Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing” as the hope for disrupting the peace plan of U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Nov. 28, Reuters reported that, according to two U.S. officials, Rubio plans to skip the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels scheduled for Dec. 3. Reuters calls it “highly unusual,” as it only happens twice a year and this one is a “key transatlantic gathering.” Instead, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will represent Washington, said one official. And Reuters notes, worrisomely, that Landau had questioned the need for NATO in a June post on X (though one which he later deleted).
While Reuters hoped proper dealings could be restored, they stated: “It was unclear why Rubio planned to skip the Dec. 3 meeting, and his plans could change. But his likely no-show comes when U.S. and Ukrainian officials have been scrambling to narrow gaps over President Donald Trump’s plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with some European diplomats complaining they are being cut out of the process.”
Europe and Reuters can express concern and confusion, but the unusual development is fully coherent with their concern and confusion over Trump’s Nov. 25 announcement, cutting Rubio out of handling Ukraine and Europe after he sabotaged the Geneva negotiations. Instead, Trump appointed Driscoll and Witkoff to handle things in Kiev and Moscow and cut short the Yermak-Rubio arrangement—whereby Zelenskyy was supposedly to meet with Trump over a new “Kiev” 19-point plan.
However, Yermak seems to have fallen harder than Rubio. When Trump dropped his bombshell on Nov. 25, last Tuesday afternoon, Yermak was in the middle of an interview with the New York Post, puffing his success and explaining the upcoming Zelenskyyy-Trump confab. The Post reported: “Upon reading the full [Trump] post, Yermak’s face dropped, apparently gutted by the news.” on Nov. 28, he lost his long-term and powerful grip on Ukraine; yet Rubio is still positioned to destroy Trump in a war upon Venezuela.
