To reach an agreement on ending the war, Ukraine must give up some of the territory Russia has seized since 2014, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday as he headed to Saudi Arabia for peace talks with the Ukrainian officials, reports Politico.
Rubio said that concessions are the “only way” to end the large-scale invasion launched by Russia in February 2022, which has left nearly a million people dead on both sides.
“They [Ukrainians] have suffered a lot, and their people have suffered a lot, and after something like this it is hard to even talk about concessions,” he told reporters. “But this is the only way it will end, to prevent more suffering.”
Adding that he was “not going to discuss anything in advance”, Rubio said the US side would try to understand what Kyiv was “prepared to do to make peace” and end the war.
“IT MIGHT BE INCOMPATIBLE WITH WHAT THE RUSSIANS ARE WILLING TO DO,” HE SAID. “WE HAVE TO CLARIFY THAT.”
Ukraine has long ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire deal that would see it relinquish Russian-occupied lands, including the Crimean Peninsula seized by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014. Instead, the Ukrainian government has called for a “just peace” that would see the Kremlin pay compensation for three years of war.
Rubio on Monday refused to specify how much each side would have to concede but said it would be difficult for Kyiv to regain all the lost territory.
“The Russians cannot conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it will be very difficult for Ukraine to force the Russians to go back to the 2014 [borders] in any reasonable period of time,” he told reporters.
Russia has occupied about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory and its troops are pushing into the Donetsk region in the east.
Zelenskyy is in Saudi Arabia and met with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but will not be present for talks with Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Instead, the Ukrainians will be represented by Zelenskyy’s top aide Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.
Relations between Kiev and Washington have been fragile since Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump’s televised Oval Office spat. This will also be the first talks between top US officials and the Ukrainian leadership since that dispute.
Shortly afterwards, Trump suspended all US military aid to the country in order to force Ukraine to come to the negotiating table with Russia.
Rubio indicated that, depending on the outcome of the upcoming talks, the flow of aid could resume, saying that the US “could announce good news on this issue”.
“All this happened because we believed that they were not committed to any kind of peace process, or not interested in negotiations,” he said. “If that changes, then of course our position can change.”
Rubio also spoke of a recent exchange of words with Poland’s foreign minister over tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet systems in Ukraine, with Warsaw saying it would “look for other suppliers” if Musk cut off the vital service.
Having previously said that Poland should say “thank you” for US assistance to Ukraine, Rubio this time called the country a “great NATO ally”.
“It is setting a great example for the rest of Europe. I was simply reacting to the Foreign Minister’s post, which was simply inaccurate,” Rubio said.
Meanwhile, Middle East envoy Witkoff plans to visit Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin, a person with knowledge of the plans said on Monday, after meeting the Kremlin leader in Russia last month.