Growing U.S. pressure to wind down the war in Ukraine will force Kyiv to choose between compromising on its supposed red lines to de-escalate the conflict, or risk losing U.S. support and its battlefield position by refusing to cede. On April 23, the United Kingdom downgraded planned talks in London among Ukrainian, European and U.S. officials from a higher ministerial to a lower working level after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said they could no longer attend. Rubio and Witkoff reportedly withdrew from the talks upon learning that the Ukrainian delegation wanted to discuss options for a ceasefire, instead of the U.S. peace framework that Rubio presented to his European and Ukrainian counterparts during an April 17 meeting in Paris.