Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that Ukraine would need to make concessions over territory Russia has controlled since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war.
Speaking while en route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks with senior Ukrainian officials, Rubio’s remarks came 10 days after a tense White House meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” Rubio told reporters.
While he did not outline specific terms for a potential agreement, Rubio made clear that both sides would need to compromise.
“I think both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation,” he said. “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.”
Rubio said military aid would likely be a key topic in Tuesday’s meetings with Ukrainian officials and suggested that the U.S. stance on the matter could shift if Ukraine demonstrated a serious commitment to peace.
