U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the negotiation process aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine has brought the parties closer to peace, though much effort is still needed to reach a final agreement.
Marco Rubio made this statement in an interview with Fox News Radio, the transcript of which was published by the U.S. State Department, Ukrinform reports.
“I think what we have seen is that we’re closer – we’re not close to peace. I mean, I think there’s a lot to be worked on, but we’re closer than we were two weeks ago or closer than we were six months ago,” he said.
Rubio emphasized that the war in Ukraine has been ongoing for three years, and the U.S. President wants it to end.
“I think everyone should agree that this war needs to end, and the question is how do you end it in a way that it doesn’t restart again. So, the plan basically was, can we get these guys to stop shooting at each other and sit down and have a negotiation over how to end this permanently. That’s been the President’s goal,” the U.S. Secretary of State explained.
He said he received a “good commitment” from the Ukrainian delegation last week in Saudi Arabia:
“They agreed to stop shooting and freeze everything where it is, and we can get to talking about how to end this permanently.”
Now, according to Rubio, the goal is to obtain “something like that” from the Russians. In this context, he called last week’s meeting between Special Envoy Witkoff and Putin productive.
“It wasn’t a waste of time, came back with some information, but we’ll know more tomorrow after the President speaks to Putin. And hopefully we’ll be in a better place,” the U.S. Secretary of State concluded.
As reported by Ukrinform, on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the U.S., together with Ukraine and Russia, has never been closer to a peace deal than it is now.
Photo: OP
