ISTANBUL US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied a report that the Trump administration is considering lifting sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline as part of Ukraine peace negotiations. "This is unequivocally false," Rubio wrote on X on Wednesday. "Neither (special envoy) Steve Witkoff nor I have had any conversations about lifting sanctions against Russia as part of a deal with Ukraine," he said. He described the report as "journalistic malpractice" and called for a full