We don’t know if Russia wants peace, Ukraine & Europe aren’t exluded in talks, says Rubio
In an apparent attempt to douse the fires that President Donald Trump has lit, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that it is not yet known if Russia wants to end the war in Ukraine and that Europe and Ukraine are not being excluded from talks
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards an aircraft to depart to the United States in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 19, 2025. (Photo: Reuters)
Despite continuous appeasement from US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said it’s not clear if Russia wants to end the war with Ukraine.
In an apprent attempt to douse the fires that Trump has lit, Rubio said the perception about the administration’s approach to ending the war in Ukraine was not correct.
In an interview with journalist Catherine Herridge, Rubio said neither Eurpoe and Ukraine are excluded from discussions nor there can be peace deal without both Russia and Ukraine agreeing to it. He, however, went on to criticise Zelensky for not accepting the minerals deal floated by Trump — Zelensky rejected the deal as its terms would have meant the economic colonisation of Ukraine by the United States.
Rubio’s remarks come at a time when the US-Ukraine relationship is at a new low. While Trump was always critical of the US support to Ukraine, he went from criticism to complete hostility this week as he falsely said that Ukraine had started the war with Russia and called Zelensky a “dictator” and essentially called for his ouster.
We don’t know if Russia wants peace, says Rubio
Even as Trump has termed Ukraine as the aggressor and put the blame for the continuing war on Zelensky, Rubio said that it is not yet clear that Russia wants peace and the administration is in the process of finding out the answer to the question.
Rubio told Herridge that the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia was not to negotiate the specifics of the plan to end the war in Ukraine but to establish a working relationship and to figure out whether Russia actually wants in Ukraine.
“The only way is to test them, to basically engage them and say, OK, are you serious about ending the war? And if So, what are your demands? Are your public demands and your private demands different? We have to have some process by which we engage in that conversation. Now, it may turn out that they don’t want to end the war. I don’t know. We’re going to find out. But we have to have that process to determine that,” said Rubio in the interview posted on X.
EXCLUSIVE: Our full, unedited interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio(@SecRubio) on his first 30 days leading the Department.
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) February 21, 2025
Restarting U.S./Russia relations following the Biden Administration, direct engagement with Ukraine, U.S. proposal for Gaza, preventing Iranian… pic.twitter.com/cxkHmNZWw0
When Herridge pressed him on the issue, Rubio said that the Trump administration is yet to figure out how Russia’s real demands and intentions stand.
“So at the end, they’re either interested or they’re not. If the demands they make for ending the war are maximalist and unrealistic, then I think we have our answer. If, on the other hand, there’s any opportunity to pursue peace, we have to do it,” said Rubio.
Rubio rejects exclusion of Ukraine & Europe from talks
Rubio rejected the charge that the Trump administration was excluding Ukraine and Europe with their engagement with Russia.
Rubio pointed that immediately after talks with the Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia, he briefied the foreign ministers of European countries — he was referring to the virtual meeting he convened of British, French, German, Italian, and European Union’s (EU) foreign minsiters after talks in Saudi Arabia.
“President Zelensky has met with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of State, bipartisan delegations in the US Senate and House that were also in Munich. Our Special Envoy is there today meeting with him. So they, we talked to the Ukrainians throughout this process and we explained to them very clearly what our intentions were in terms of pursuing this. In fact, the President of the United States spoke to Zelensky right after he hung up with Putin. I was in the office for both phone calls. So to say that we haven’t consulted them is not accurate,” said Rubio.
Even as Rubio struck a sober tone for much of the conversation, he repeated Trump’s anger on Zelensky. He said that he was “personally very upset” that Zelensky rejected the minerals deal that the Trump administration had come up with.
Under the terms of the deal reported in the media, the United States would have practically gained control of all natural resources of Ukraine and would have got a veto on all decision-making powers, reducing Ukraine to a US colony. Zelensky naturally rejected the deal.
The terms of the deal nothwitstanding, Rubio pitched the deal as a security guarantee — even as US officials have essentially ruled out real security guarantees.
Rubio further said that it was “silly” to say that the Trump adminsitration could strike a deal to end the war without all sides agreeing to it.
“You can’t find a stop to a war unless both sides and their views are represented. They both have to agree to it, like Russia can’t agree to a ceasefire or to an end hostilities that the Ukrainians don’t agree to it. It has to be on terms acceptable to both sides. Likewise with the Europeans,” said Rubio.
Also read: Hungary to veto new EU sanctions on Russia
Source: FP
