Ukraine will need to make some territorial concessions for peace deal, Marco Rubio says

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The best diplomat in the United States said on Monday on the eve of the talks between Washington and Kiev in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that Ukraine will need to accept Russian control over some lands as part of the peace agreement.

Foreign Minister Marco Rubio told the journalists on his way to high -level talks in Jeddah that “the Russians cannot oppress all Ukraine, and it is clear that it will be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable period of time to force the Russians to return the Russians throughout the way to where they were in 2014.”

Shedding light on Rubio’s comments, which glimpsed to Ukraine borders before Russia’s inclusion of the Crimea in 2014, eight years before Moscow launched its large scale to Ukraine, how the Trump administration took a more strict position with Kiev from the government of Joe Biden.

Tuesday talks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia come in a pivotal moment, about 10 days after a general dispute at the White House between Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinski and President Donald Trump due to the origins of Russia’s invasion and the future of American aid, as Washington is trying to the side alongside the conflict.

Trump has since cut off military aid and intelligence participation to Kiev, but Zelinski made some initiatives to the White House during the past week, including pledge to sign an agreement that allows the United States to access critical minerals in Ukraine, causing some friction to reduce.

“The Ukrainian position in the meeting will be at all,” Zelinski said in a telegram on Monday evening. He added that he spoke with Muhammad bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, about “the steps and circumstances that may end the war and make peace be reliable and permanent.”

Speaking to reporters on his trip to Saudi Arabia on Monday, Rubio said he hoped that military aid will be restored.

“I think the idea of ​​stopping in help, on a large scale, is something that I hope we can solve. It is clear that what happens tomorrow will be the key to that.”

Officials who have seen the preparations for negotiations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia said that Kiev was to propose a partial ceasefire with Russia for the high drone plane on drones and combat operations in the Black Sea, in the hope that the progress of the Washington talks would lead to the opposite of its decision to freeze to freeze intelligence and provide the supplier to the weapon.

Trump has faced criticism locally and internationally to put a lot of pressure on Ukraine to make concessions and give a advantage to Russia in talks on a peace deal run by Washington on parallel paths. Russian and Ukrainian officials have not launched direct negotiations.

While Trump threatened Russia with additional penalties and tariff fees last week, he was publicly criticizing Zelinski – including the call to elections in Ukraine, which may lead to his expulsion. Speaking to correspondents in the first air force, returning to Washington from Florida on Sunday, he kept the pressure on Kiev.

“I want them to want peace, right?” The American president said.

“Well, they have not appeared to the extent that they should. I now think they didn’t do it, but I think they will be, and I think it will be clear for two or three days.”

Earlier on Monday, UK Prime Minister Sir Kerr Starmer Trump told him that he wanted to see “positive” talks between senior US officials and the United States representing the way to resume military aid in Washington and intelligence participation with Kiev.

“The Prime Minister said he hoped that there will be a positive result of the talks that would enable us to share aid and intelligence to restart them,” said a spokesman for a Downing Street on Monday. The White House did not release its novel for the conversation.

Starmer put himself as one of the important players in Europe in the conflict, which helped with French President Emmanuel Macron to calm Zelinski’s relations with Trump and collect an alliance of European powers ready to deploy forces on Ukraine to ensure a peace agreement.

A spokesman for the Downing Street said that the Prime Minister told Trump that UK officials had spoken to Ukrainian representatives at the weekend, as they received assurances from Kiev that they were “still committed to permanent peace.”

On Saturday, Starmer will host a virtual meeting of a group of European and Commonwealth countries mainly ready to help secure a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.