US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the Trump administration continues to pressure Moscow and sell weapons to Ukraine, and the US is the only one who can bring Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, but does he believe that US President Donald Trump's patience in this is limitless - no, writes UNN.
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Rubio confirmed that only bilateral talks between the US and Ukraine are taking place this week, saying "yes" to the relevant question.
Asked if there is a point where the administration will change course and increase pressure on Moscow, as Kyiv and others have called for, Rubio said that "the administration continues to increase pressure on Moscow."
"For example, late last year, the president imposed additional sanctions on their oil company Rosneft. The administration continues to sell weapons to Ukraine. We do not sell weapons to Russia and do not impose sanctions on Ukraine," the US Secretary of State noted.
And added: "The President appreciates the fact that he is the only world leader who has any chance in the world of bringing these two sides to the negotiating table. We are the only country or the only organization on the planet that has been able to get Russian and Ukrainian negotiators to sit at the negotiating table and talk to each other."
"And for a terrible war like this, that's a very important position for us that we don't want to give up, because if we step back or if we rule it out, then who will? The United Nations won't. France won't. The EU won't. The Russians won't even talk to them," Rubio continued.
"So we don't want to back down - we know that ultimately, this war in Ukraine has no military solution. This war will be settled through negotiations, and right now we are the only country in the world that can be a catalyst for negotiations. If we abandon that role, no one else can do it," the US Secretary of State emphasized.
Nevertheless, do I believe that the President's patience is limitless? I don't believe so. But I'm not going to predict for you when it will end or at what point he will decide not to do it anymore
He added: "I can tell you, and I think you've heard him express, a deep frustration that this is not over yet, because he considers it an absolutely stupid and senseless war, in which 7-8,000 soldiers die on the battlefield every week, numbers that would be striking in the context of any other conflict in the world. And that's what's happening, and it's causing enormous damage to Russia, but it's also causing generational damage in Ukraine - with more and more destruction every day, and it may take a whole generation for this country to rebuild, not to mention the suffering of its people, which they experienced this winter, which was terrible."
Asked why this "frustration" is equally expressed towards both Zelenskyy and Putin, when it is Moscow that continues to strike civilian infrastructure and civilians throughout Ukraine, Rubio noted that he returns to what he said, namely: "the reason Ukraine has been able to continue this war is that the United States has supplied and sold weapons to Ukraine, and has also provided them with intelligence assistance, etc., and we have also imposed sanctions on Russia. We have not imposed sanctions on Ukraine. So in that sense, the US has not stood still."
"I think the President's frustration is generalized, and you've seen it expressed from time to time. He just doesn't understand how two countries in such a brutal, terrible, and bloody war cannot reach an understanding on how to end it. He wants it to end, and he has done a lot. He has invested a lot of political capital in it," the US Secretary of State pointed out.
And added: "I mean, the easiest thing to do would have been to just continue the previous policy, which would have just led to a protracted conflict. The President has invested an enormous amount of political capital. Steve (Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff - ed.) has traveled, I don't know how many times at his own expense around the world, to try to bring this to an end. So we have a lot of people who have put a lot of energy into this, and I think we have made progress in narrowing down the issues, but unfortunately, some issues are still very, very difficult."