Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that he sees promise in Ukraine’s proposal for a partial ceasefire to end the war with Russia, ahead of talks in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian officials.
“I’m not saying that alone is enough but it’s the kind of concession you would need to see in order to end the conflict,” he said on March 10.
Kyiv is expected to propose an aerial and naval truce with Russia during the negotiations on March 11, a Ukrainian official told AFP.
Russia has previously rejected the idea of a temporary ceasefire, saying it was an attempt to buy time and prevent Ukraine’s military collapse.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Saudi Arabia on March 10 to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, although he is not expected to play any formal role in the talks between his country and the US.
The Ukrainian team will be represented by Zelensky’s head of office Andriy Yermak, the country’s national security adviser and several foreign and defence ministers.
Marco Rubio will represent the US delegation alongside National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Before arriving in Jeddah on March 10, Marco Rubio said that it was important to “establish clearly Ukraine’s intentions” for a peace deal and that the country would “have to be prepared to do difficult things like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this”.
“I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do,” he added.
“We want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go, and compare that to what the Russians want, and then see how far apart we truly are.”
He said that both sides needed to realize that “there’s no military solution” to the conflict and it can only be resolved through “diplomatic means”.
It comes as President Donald Trump steps up pressure on Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire with Moscow, without any promises of US security guarantees.
The talks mark the first official meeting since Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House descended into acrimony last month.
Following the meeting, the US paused military aid and intelligence sharing for Kyiv in an apparent bid to get President Zelensky to the negotiating table.
Marco Rubio said that he hoped the pause in aid could be “resolved” but that the negotiations on March 11 “would be key to that”.
