Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US does not want negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to drag on indefinitely, stressing that Washington expects concrete results.
He said the Vatican offered to host the Trump-Putin talks, and they might take them up on it.
The talks that Putin didn’t attend with Zelensky last week did have some points of agreement. It wasn’t completely worthless.
The countries agreed to a prisoner swap involving 1,000 people on each side, and to continue contacts once both parties have prepared detailed ceasefire proposals.
They Will See If Putin Is Tapping Them Along
Sec. Rubio spoke on the phone Saturday with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to get a readout on the latest talks. The U.S. is trying to determine whether Russia is “tapping us along” in efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
“We talked about a variety of things,” Rubio told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” in an interview airing Sunday. “I wanted to get his readout on his view of how the talks went yesterday. They were not a complete waste of time.”
“Are they tapping us along? Well, that’s what we’re trying to find out,” Rubio told Brennan when asked if Russia and Ukraine are seeking to talk to “buy time.” “We’ll find out pretty soon.”
He added, “On the one hand, we’re trying to achieve peace and end a very bloody, costly, and destructive war. So, there’s some element of patience that is required. On the other hand, we don’t have time to waste. There are a lot of other things happening in the world that we also need to be paying attention to.”
The secretary of state, and a slew of other positions, said he believes the only way that these talks will move forward is if Mr. Trump and Putin meet in person. He said Mr. Trump has publicly offered to meet one-on-one.
“The mechanics of setting that kind of meeting up would require a little bit of work, so I can’t say that’s being planned as we speak in terms of picking a site and a date,” Rubio said. “But the president wants to do it. He wants to do it as soon as feasible.”
Sen. Graham has a veto-proof agreement on crippling sanctions against Russia. The Senate is giving them time, but the Executive does not control that.
Rubio said Russia has been advised about this for two months now.
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