LONDON, February 13. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not attend a meeting with European leaders on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where the conflict in Ukraine was discussed, The Financial Times reported, citing an American official.
"The secretary won’t be attending the Berlin Format meeting on Ukraine given the number of meetings he has happening at the same time," the source told the newspaper before the talks began. He assured that Rubio "is engaging on Russia-Ukraine in many of his meetings here in Munich."
However, one European official called the top US diplomat’s absence from the meeting "insane," The Financial Times noted. Another European source told the newspaper that without American participation, the talks "lacked substance."
According to The Financial Times, Rubio's absence from the talks was seen in European capitals as evidence of "Washington’s waning interest in involving them in its efforts to solve the conflict" in Ukraine.
In turn, Germany’s Deutsche Welle radio company (DW, recognized in Russia as a foreign agent), German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and Vladimir Zelensky took part in the meeting on Ukraine in the so-called Berlin format.