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Marco Rubio has said that both Russia and Ukraine will have to make concessions in territory in order to reach a peace deal.
Russia-Ukraine news: Rubio says both countries have to make concessions (Reuters Image)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said that America is not in a position to accept or reject Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands for stopping a war in Ukraine, adding that both sides “are going to have to make concessions” to end the conflict that has now been underway for over three years.
He said that the US wants to seal the peace deal between Russia and Ukraine but noted that this would require both sides “to give”.
“The US is not in a position to accept or reject anything because ultimately it’s up to the Ukrainians. They are the ones Russia has to make peace with,” Rubio said on ‘Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan’ on CBS News, after being asked if President Donald Trump accepted Putin’s demands in the Alaska Summit on Friday.
“We want to wind up with a peace deal that ends this war so Ukraine can go on with the rest of their lives and rebuild their country and be assured that this is never going to happen again,” he added.
Trump met Putin at a military base in Alaska on Friday and is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday. He earlier described meeting with Putin as “extremely productive”, stating that “many points” were agreed on, but there is “no deal until there is a deal”.
Rubio, during the TV interview, remained tight-lipped on the details of the Friday meeting and said, “There are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are potential for breakthroughs.”
“We have to make enough progress so that we can sit down President Zelenskyy and President Putin in the same place, which is what President Zelenskyy has been asking for, and reach a final agreement that ends this war,” Rubio said.
He underlined that there were some “concepts and ideas” discussed with Putin, which they expect Kyiv would support.
According to reports, Trump and Putin talked about a plan where Russia would give up small areas of occupied Ukraine, while Ukraine would hand over a larger stretch of fortified land in the east and agree to keep the battle lines unchanged in other places. However, Zelenskyy has reportedly dismissed the plan.
When Rubio was asked if the US would demand Russians to withdraw from the Ukrainian territory under the possible deal, he said that both countries would have to make concessions in order to reach a deal to end the conflict.
“If one side gets everything they want, that’s called surrender. And that’s not what we’re close to doing, because neither side here is on the verge of surrender, or anything close to it,” he said.
Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes…Read More
Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes… Read More
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