America’s top diplomat has said that he sees promise in Ukraine’s proposal for a partial ceasefire to end the three-year war with Russia, ahead of talks in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian officials.
“I’m not saying that alone is enough but it’s the kind of concession you would need to see to end the conflict,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.
Rubio will represent the US delegation alongside National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Rubio said that it was important to “establish Ukraine’s intentions” for a peace deal and that the country would “have to be prepared to do difficult things like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this”.
“I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do,” he added. “We want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go, and compare that to what the Russians want, and then see how far apart we truly are.”
He said that both sides needed to realise that “there’s no military solution” to the conflict and it can only be resolved through “diplomatic means”.
Rubio said that he hoped the pause in aid could be “resolved” but that the negotiations on Tuesday “would be key to that”.
The suspension “came about because we felt that they [Ukraine] were not committed to any sort of peace process”, he said, and “if that changes, obviously our posture can change”.
“The President is going to use whatever tools he has at his disposal to try to get both sides to that table so this war will end,” he added.
