Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said neither Ukraine nor Russia is anywhere close to surrendering, meaning a negotiated settlement is the only realistic way to stop the bloodshed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said neither Ukraine nor Russia is anywhere close to surrendering, meaning a negotiated settlement is the only realistic way to stop the bloodshed.
“Wars end generally in one of two ways: surrender by one side or a negotiated settlement,” Rubio told reporters at a lengthy year-end briefing– as US-led talks were set to stretch into the weekend in Miami.
“We don’t see surrender anytime in the near future by either side, and so only a negotiated settlement gives us the opportunity to end this war.”
Rubio laid out the assessment as Russian President Vladimir Putin in his own four-hour-long press conference insisted he would accept nothing short of Ukraine’s unconditional capitulation, fueling doubts about whether the Kremlin is serious about compromise.
“The only thing I want to say is that we have always said this: We are ready and willing to end this conflict peacefully, based on the principles I outlined last June at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by addressing the root causes that led to this crisis,” Putin said, referring to his demands that Ukraine surrender its entire Donbas region and change its constitution to rule out NATO membership.
But Rubio said he pays little mind to what the Russian dictator says in public and instead is focusing on plausible outcomes.
