Secretary of State Marco Rubio mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s demands for security guarantees when peace with Russia is still not guaranteed.
Ukraine just passed its third-year anniversary since Russia invaded and war broke out. While Zelensky has maintained control of its capital, Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to have annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson regions in the south and east of Ukraine since September 2022. Rubio explained that speaking to Putin, after not a single European ally or former President Joe Biden was able to, is the way to end the war.
“No one here is claiming Vladimir Putin is going to get the Nobel Peace Prize this year or that he should be the man of the year at the Humanitarian Association. What we’re arguing is he has a very large country. They’re in full war footing. They’re cranking out weapons now at a war-footing pace, and we need to figure out, is there way to get them to stop the war?” Rubio said on ABC News’s This Week. “That’s the goal here. It’s that simple. Can we try to sit with them and figure out whether there’s anything — what are the Russians’ demands? Under what conditions would the Russians be willing to stop this war? As we said, we don’t know what those are, because we haven’t talked to them in three years.”
A recent tense meeting between Zelensky and President Donald Trump created confusion about Putin’s role in the war. Zelensky attempted to negotiate with Trump on security guarantees while in Washington, D.C., earlier this week and insisted the meeting happen in front of the media.
“The security guarantees — which I actually like to call deterrents — is all contingent upon there being a peace. Everybody is saying security guarantees to secure the peace. You first have to have a peace. We don’t even know if the peace is possible,” Rubio said. “We’re trying to get Putin to a negotiating table. Everybody knows the history here, the back and forth. We understand that. We all understand that, but the question now is, can we get them to a table to negotiate? That’s our goal. Don’t do anything to disrupt that, and that’s what Zelenksy did, unfortunately.”
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According to the president, he is also “in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia. Talks are proceeding very well!”
Russian casualties are approaching 1 million dead, while Trump has suggested 700,000 Ukrainian troops are also dead. However, Zelensky claims the Ukrainian death toll is 43,000.
