(CLO) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Ukraine would have to cede some of the territory Russia has occupied since 2014 as part of any deal to end the war.
He made the remarks en route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks with senior Ukrainian officials, 10 days after a tense meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. The Trump administration suspended military aid to Ukraine after the meeting.
Mr. Marco Rubio arrives in Saudi Arabia. Photo: X
“The most important thing we need to achieve here is a strong sense that Ukraine is willing to do difficult things, just as Russia is going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way,” Rubio told reporters.
Mr Rubio declined to outline a potential deal but stressed that concessions from both sides would be central to diplomacy.
“I think both sides need to understand that there is no military solution to this situation,” Rubio said. “Russia cannot conquer all of Ukraine, and it would be very difficult for Ukraine in a reasonable period of time to push Russia back to where it was in 2014.”
Mr Rubio added that in future negotiations with Moscow, it would be important to determine what concessions Russia was willing to make. “We don’t know how far apart they really are,” he said.
Tuesday’s talks are unlikely to delve into a proposed deal on Ukraine’s natural resources that Mr. Trump has described as compensation for three years of U.S. military aid since Russia launched a full-scale invasion. Mr. Trump has argued that U.S. financial interests in Ukraine’s fossil fuels and rare earth minerals would give Ukraine implicit protection.
Although the US has stopped sharing some intelligence with Ukraine, including satellite imagery, Mr. Rubio said Washington is still providing Kiev with information that allows it to continue to defend itself against Russian attacks. He also said there was no threat of ending Ukraine’s access to Starlink, the internet service owned by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
While the US has recently put pressure on Ukraine, Mr Trump has also threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s continued military activity. Mr Rubio said the US is trying to demonstrate that it still has ways to pressure Russia to bring it to the negotiating table with Ukraine.
Mr Rubio said he and Ukrainian officials would likely discuss resuming military aid in meetings on Tuesday. He said the US position on the issue could change if he believed Ukraine was truly committed to peace.
Cao Phong (according to Fox News, CNN, AJ)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/ngoai-truong-my-su-nhuong-bo-tu-ca-hai-phia-se-la-trung-tam-trong-bat-ky-thoa-thuan-hoa-binh-nao-post337951.html
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