Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Ukraine will have to make concessions to the land Russia has taken since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war.
Mr Rubio spoke during a meeting with senior Ukrainian officials while flying to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 10 days after President Trump’s controversial White House meeting with Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelensky. After the explosion, the Trump administration stopped military aid to Ukraine, which focused on Mr. Trump’s refusal to include any security assurances in the proposed deal involving Ukraine’s natural resources.
“The most important thing we have to stay here is that Ukraine is ready to do difficult things, such as the Russians have to do difficult things to end this conflict, or at least pause in some way, shape or form,” Rubio told reporters.
Mr Rubio refused to provide an outline of the potential agreement, but made it clear that the concessions between the two sides were central to diplomacy.
“I think both sides need to understand that there is no military solution,” Rubio said. “The Russians can’t conquer the whole thing about Ukraine, and obviously it’s hard for Ukraine to force the Russians to return to 2014 at any reasonable time.”
Mr Rubio added that in future talks with Moscow, it was essential to determine what Russia is willing to recognize.
“We don’t know how far they are really apart,” Rubio said.
The negotiations on Tuesday may not delve into the proposed deal for Ukraine’s natural resources, which Mr. Trump has called for compensation for U.S. military support in three years since the full Russian invasion. He said the U.S. financial interests in Ukraine’s fossil fuels and rare earth minerals would provide Ukraine with implicit security.
Although the United States has stopped sharing some intelligence with Ukraine, including satellite images, Mr. Rubio said it is still providing information to Kiev to enable it to continue defending itself from Russian attacks. He also said there has never been a threat to remove access to Ukrainian access to Starlink, an internet service company owned by Elon Musk SpaceX.
Even as the United States has put pressure on Ukraine in recent weeks, Trump has threatened to impose other sanctions on Moscow’s ongoing military activities. Mr Rubio said the United States tried to prove that it still had a way to force Russia to bring it to the negotiating table with Ukraine.
Mr Rubio said he and Ukrainian officials are likely to discuss resuming military aid at a meeting on Tuesday. He said that if he thinks Ukraine is serious about peace, the U.S. position on the issue may change.
“I can assure you that we will not provide military assistance to the Russians,” Rubio said.
