Rubio says this week will determine US future involvement in Russia-Ukraine conflict
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine needs to happen soon, adding that Washington has held off imposing sanctions on Russia to allow diplomacy to work but warned that Trump has options for dealing with any party that resists a peace deal, according to Reuters news agency.
“If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t come to fruition, then as a nation state, there are options that we have for those who we hold responsible for not wanting the peace,”. Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “But we prefer not to get to that stage yet, because we think it closes the door to diplomacy.”
Meanwhile, the Secretary of State added that the Trump administration will spend the coming week trying to determine whether to continue as a mediator.
“This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we don’t want to continue to be involved in, or if it’s time to sort of focus on some other issues,” he said.
Rubio spoke a day after President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy met in Rome during the funeral of Pope Francis to revive faltering efforts to end the war.
Zelenskiy said the meeting could prove historic if it delivers the kind of peace he is hoping for, and a White House spokesperson called it “very productive.”
Separately, President Trump’s national security adviser said on Sunday that the United States and Ukraine will reach a deal related to rare earth minerals and that talks continued over the weekend.
“The Ukraine deal is going to get done,” Mike Waltz said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “The negotiators were working hard over the weekend.”
