US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Ukraine would have to cede some of its territory to Moscow to secure a peace deal — as Western diplomats warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not accept any concession on his demands.
Speaking just before today’s peace talks in Saudi Arabia, Rubio said Ukraine must be willing to accept that it cannot recapture all the territory lost so far from the three-year invasion and be “prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians …
“Both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation,” Rubio said of the need to reach a diplomatic end to the war.
“The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and, obviously, it’ll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014,” he added.
Ukraine has so far agreed to a US deal calling for an immediate 30-day cease-fire in the war, which includes the release of prisoners of war and civilian detainees.
In the joint statement, Washington said it was up to the task, committing to “discussing these specific proposals with representatives from Russia.”
At the White House Tuesday, President Trump said he expected to talk to his Russian counterpart to push the deal forward.
Despite Rubio’s assurance that both sides will have to make compromises in the US-brokered peace deal, Western security officials warned that Putin has made it clear that he will not falter on any of his demands, Bloomberg reports.
The Russian president has repeatedly said he is not willing to give up any land conquered during the three-year invasion, nor will he allow any Western peacekeeping forces to be deployed to Ukraine.
Putin has also questioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ability to participate in the peace talks.
Moscow has maintained its “maximalist” demands, which it knows will not be accepted by Ukrainians and Europeans, with the goal of continuing the bloodshed until his demands are met, the security officials told Bloomberg.
Putin ultimately sees very little incentive in backing out of his demands as he hedges his bets that Zelensky would be blamed for any fallout to the peace deal, the officials added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has insisted that Russia is ready to negotiate an end to the war, but he has yet to discuss what concessions, if any, Moscow is willing to make.
“Russia is open for peace efforts, for peace settlement around Ukraine, and we actually prefer to reach our goals through peaceful and diplomatic means,” Peskov said.
Zelensky has made it clear that he is willing to give up the land conquered by Russia so long as Ukraine is allowed to join NATO and given real assurances that Russia will end its repeated invasions into the country.
Russia, however, has only reportedly shown willingness to discuss a temporary truce with Ukraine, rather than the “just and lasting peace” outlined by the European Union.
Along with discussing the terms of a potential peace deal, Rubio’s team was able to resolve the military aid and intelligence sharing pause implemented by Trump following his disastrous meeting with Zelensky two weeks ago.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is heading the negotiations with Rubio, also said he’s “hopeful” the talks will persuade Zelensky to sign off on the stalled minerals deal this week.
The US and Ukraine have agreed to resume talks on a mineral-rights deal that would see the US gain access to Ukraine’s rich, largely untapped and lucrative critical and rare-earth minerals.
