Peace negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine have narrowed to focus on control of roughly one-fifth of the Donetsk region currently not under Russian control, U.S. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said Saturday.
Speaking to Bloomberg at the Munich Security Conference, Rubio explained that ceding the territory to Ukraine would be a significant concession, both tactically and politically.
“We will continue to explore modalities that make visible whether there is a solution to this exceptional problem that is acceptable to Ukraine and that Russia also accepts,”
Rubio stated, according to MTI.
Rubio reiterated that although failure is not impossible, the United States will do everything it can to determine if an agreement can be reached between the warring parties.
He noted that the war in Ukraine is unlikely to conclude in a traditional defeat, pointing out that Russia loses 7-8,000 soldiers weekly, while Ukraine faces massive infrastructure damage that will take years and billions of dollars to rebuild.
Rubio also stated that the United States is invested in the survival of Europe due to the close interconnectedness in many areas and the critical importance of the transatlantic alliance.
He added that the message of his speech at the Munich Security Conference was similar to that delivered by Vice President J.D. Vance a year earlier: that when the United States critically comments on decisions made or not made by Europe, it does so because it cares about Europe.
