The British government announced on Wednesday that the Ukraine peace talks meeting with foreign ministers from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ukraine has been postponed. "Official-level talks will continue but these are closed to media," a Foreign Office spokesperson said.

The statement confirms a report that said the meeting has been downgraded after United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided not to attend. The US has threatened to abandon peace negotiations if Russia and Ukraine do not show signs of compromise. The latest drawback came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the possibility of ceding the occupied peninsula of Crimea to Russia.