Sec. Marco Rubio Provides An Update On The Peace Talks Between Russia And Ukraine

yesterday

During a press conference at NATO headquarters on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about the current status of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

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Transcript

00:00The second question here, Missy from Washington Post.

00:03Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask you about the Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

00:07Can you give us the, tell us about the American assessment of the conditions that Russia put

00:12forward following the, regarding the Black Sea ceasefire talks?

00:17And also, the British and French foreign minister said this morning that Putin

00:22was dragging his feet. Do you agree with that?

00:25Maybe, he might be. We don't know yet. We're going to find out fairly soon. I mean, look,

00:28we are, here's what the president wanted to do. He wants to end this war, and he wanted to test

00:33it very early in his administration. Is it possible to end this war on terms that are

00:37acceptable, obviously, to both sides? Because you can't end a war unless both sides agree.

00:41And that's what we're in the process of finding out. We will know soon enough, in a matter of

00:44weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are. It would

00:48be good for the world if that war ended. But obviously, we have to test that proposition.

00:53So we're working through that process. We had a visitor that, Mr. Carrillo was here this week,

00:57had a chance to sit down with him. He met with others. He'll take some messages back.

01:01And the message is, the United States needs to know whether you're serious or not about peace.

01:05Ultimately, Putin will have to make that decision. The Russian Federation will have to make that

01:08decision. I think the Ukrainians have shown a willingness to enter, for example, into a

01:13complete ceasefire to create space for negotiation. At some point here, fairly soon, not six months

01:20from now, the Russians and Putin will have to make a decision about whether they're serious

01:24about peace or not. And I hope they are serious. It would be good for the world if that war ended.

01:28What is your assessment of the Russian conditions that were put forward? And also,

01:31Dmitry has said, following his talks with Mr. Whitcock yesterday, that the U.S. and

01:35Russia might resume direct flights as maybe a confidence-building measure. Do you support that?

01:41I haven't heard anything about direct flights. I can tell you, but I don't know who's going to fly

01:44on it because all these people are sanctioned. But I would just tell you that the thing I would

01:49point to you is this. We're going to wait and see. The Russians know our position in terms of

01:54wanting to end the war, and we will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious

01:58about proceeding with real peace or whether this is a delay tactic. It's a delay tactic. The

02:03President's not interested in that. If this is dragging things out, Donald, President Trump's

02:07not going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations about negotiations. We will know

02:12soon enough whether or not Russia's serious about peace. If they are, that'll be great. Then we can

02:16move towards peace. If they're not, then we'll have to reevaluate where we stand and what we

02:20do moving forward about it. But we'll be in no different a position than we are today or we were

02:25when he took office. He wanted to know early in his administration, is peace possible? We're testing

02:30to see if the Russians are interested in peace. Their actions, not their words, their actions will

02:34determine whether they're serious or not, and we intend to find that out sooner rather than later.

02:38And what about their conditions? Which conditions?

02:41They put forward additional conditions after you had the Black Sea ceasefire.

02:44Yeah, so again, I mean, this is part of the back and forth of these sorts of things. I've had phone

02:49calls with foreign leaders, and then I read the readout, and it's like, oh, we said, no, you never,

02:52they came, they said something to me they never said. I guess that's part of the game in this

02:57place or whatever. But look, I don't, bottom line is, to me at the end of the day, what's going to

03:01matter here is whether we're going to move towards peace or not. If peace is real, we will know soon

03:05enough. If they're not interested in peace, we will know soon enough, and we'll make decisions

03:09on the basis, I hope they are real. There are some promising signs, there are some troubling signs.

03:14It's not going to be easy. No one ever said this would be easy. But we're going to find out sooner

03:18rather than later. And let's just say, I'm hopeful, I remain hopeful, I need to be hopeful

03:23that peace is possible, and that the Russians are serious about peace. We want them to be serious

03:27about peace. And hopefully they are, but we'll know sooner rather than later.

Sec. Marco Rubio Provides An Update On The Peace Talks Between Russia And Ukraine

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