Territorial concessions by Ukraine are inevitable – US secretary of state
Pravda Ukraine
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated that any agreement to end the war will require territorial concessions from Ukraine.
Source: The New York Times
Details: During a flight to Jeddah, where talks with senior Ukrainian officials are set to take place, Rubio told journalists that both Ukraine and Russia must be prepared for difficult decisions to resolve the “conflict”.
Quote from Rubio: “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.”
Details: Rubio declined to specify the possible outlines of a future peace agreement but emphasised that there is no military solution to the war.
“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,” he added.
Tuesday’s talks are unlikely to delve into the proposed agreement on Ukrainian natural resources, which US President Donald Trump has described as compensation for US military support to Ukraine following the full-scale invasion.
Background:
- Earlier, Reuters cited sources as saying that US officials plan to use Tuesday’s meeting with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia partly to find out whether Ukraine is ready to make material concessions to Russiato end the war.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Jeddah on 10 March for bilateral talks with Ukrainian officials. Ukraine will be represented by Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defence Minister Rustem Umierov and Pavlo Palisa, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office.
- On 9 March, US President Donald Trump reportedly informed his aides that the minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv alone would not be sufficient to resume aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine as officials from both countries gear up for talks in Saudi Arabia this week.
- Rubio expressed hope that the issue of military assistance to Ukraine, which has been temporarily suspended by Washington, could be “resolved” during negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
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