Ukraine will have to accept Russian control of some territory as part of a peace deal, the US top diplomat said on the eve of talks between Washington and Kiev in Saudi Arabia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on his way to high-level talks in Jeddah that "the Russians cannot occupy all of Ukraine and it would be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable period of time to force the Russians back to where they were before 2014."
"We need to understand the Ukrainian position and just have a general idea of what concessions they would be willing to make. You're not going to get a ceasefire and an end to this war if both sides don't make concessions. That's clear. Maybe we're not going to go into great detail, but we're not going to sit in a room drawing possible lines on a map. The Russians would need something in exchange and then they would find out what the Russian position is on that and that would give us a pretty good estimate of how far they really are," said Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State.
Rubio's comments, which allude to Ukraine's borders before Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, eight years before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, highlight how the Trump administration has taken a much tougher stance with Kiev than the Joe Biden government.
Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia come at a key moment, about 10 days after a public White House debate between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump over the origins of Russia’s invasion and the future of U.S. aid, as Washington tries to broker an end to the conflict. Trump has since cut off military aid and intelligence sharing to Kiev, but Zelenskyy has made several moves at the White House over the past week, including a pledge to sign a deal giving the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, easing some of the friction. (A2 Televizion)
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