Sec. Marco Rubio spoke with reporters on Thursday in Turkey, where he was asked about peace talks in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine
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00:00Just start asking, do that.
00:01Mr. Secretary, can I just ask you about tomorrow?
00:05It's been a little bit messy.
00:07When do the talks start?
00:08Will you be meeting with the Russian officials tomorrow in Istanbul?
00:11What will be the format of the talks?
00:12Will it be bilateral between Russians and Ukrainians, or will Americans be in the room?
00:17Well, first of all, I'll be meeting tomorrow with the Foreign Minister Fedan
00:21and a Ukrainian delegation, a senior delegation from Ukraine that will be in town.
00:27And so I'll meet with them.
00:30Someone from our team will be involved in the Russia talks.
00:33They sent a more lower-level group over here.
00:37I hope that those talks will be between Ukraine and Russia
00:41with our Turkish counterparts in the room,
00:44along with someone from our team or members of our team at the appropriate level.
00:50But I want to be frank.
00:51I don't think we don't have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow.
00:55And frankly, at this point, I think it's abundantly clear that the only way we're going to have a breakthrough here
01:01is between President Trump and President Putin.
01:05It's going to require that level of engagement to have a breakthrough in this matter.
01:09I don't think anything productive is actually going to happen from this point forward
01:13until they engage in a very frank and direct conversation,
01:17which I know President Trump is willing to do.
01:19Do you think that might have been close to a meeting between the two?
01:22Well, the President is impatient to end this war.
01:25He's impatient, as he's been clearly said, that something needs to happen soon.
01:30Too many people are dying.
01:31There's too much destruction.
01:33And I think he's ready to have that engagement and determine once and for all
01:37if there's a path forward and what that path is.
01:40And it's my assessment that I don't think we're going to have a breakthrough here
01:43until the President and President Putin interact directly on this topic.
01:48But is there any pressure of a deadline on President Putin?
01:51Because I mean, it's two and a half weeks now since you said there wasn't concrete progress
01:55that you would, and you said at the time now, that you would withdraw as media.
02:00Well, we are not going to, we haven't been chasing this around the world anymore.
02:03I mean, that's already happened.
02:04We came because we were told that there, I was going to be here anyways, obviously,
02:08but we came because we were told that there might be a direct engagement
02:11between the Russians and the Ukrainians.
02:13That was originally the plan.
02:14You all heard the same thing.
02:15That was not to be the case, or if it is, it's not at the levels we had hoped it would be at.
02:19I hope I'm wrong.
02:20I hope they have tremendous breakthrough tomorrow.
02:22They talk, but I frankly do not believe that we're going to have a breakthrough here
02:26until President Trump sits face to face with President Putin
02:30and determines what his intentions are moving forward.
02:34What I can say with certainty is that the President's, look,
02:36he's willing to stick with us as long as it takes to achieve peace.
02:39What we cannot do, however, is continue to fly all over the world
02:44and engage in meetings that are not going to be productive.
02:46Again, I was scheduled to be here anyways because of the NATO summit,
02:50and so it just wound up working out that way.
02:53But the only way we're going to have a breakthrough here is with President Trump
02:57sitting face to face with President Putin
03:01and determining once and for all whether there's a path to peace and, if so, what it is.
03:05So it's just like, I don't mean to be glibber, but if that's the case,
03:11if there isn't going to be any breakthrough, is there any progress that you can make tomorrow?
03:17Or otherwise, what's the point from your point?
03:20We would hope so.
03:21Again, the level of team that was sent by the Russian side
03:24is certainly not indicative of one that's going to lead to a major breakthrough.
03:28I hope I'm wrong.
03:29I hope I'm 100 percent wrong.
03:30I hope tomorrow the news says they've agreed to a ceasefire.
03:33They've agreed to enter serious negotiations.
03:35But I'm just giving you my assessment, honestly.
03:38I don't think it's going to lead to that just because of the structure
03:41and how this has all played out.
03:42I think the next thing that has to happen here for there to be a breakthrough,
03:45if there's going to be one, is going to involve President Trump's direct involvement.
03:50And I believe the president shares my assessment.
03:53We'll see you next time.