WASHINGTON DC - The top US diplomat said on Monday that a new peace initiative championed by President Donald Trump marks the first real “movement” toward ending the war in Ukraine in over three years.
Speaking on Fox News following a historic high-level summit at the White House - attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and an array of European and NATO leaders - Rubio said the talks broke the “deadlock” that had defined the conflict for years, characterizing the previous administration’s policy as a simple commitment to “continue to fund Ukraine for however much they need for however long it takes.”
New Approach to Aid and Alliances
Rubio, a key figure in the Trump administration’s foreign policy, laid out a strategy centered on providing Ukraine with “security guarantees” to ensure it can never be invaded again.
He was quick to distinguish this from NATO membership, emphasizing that “any sovereign country in the world has a right to enter into security alliances with other countries. It’s not just NATO.”He added that, under pressure from President Trump, even the Russian side has for the first time acknowledged Ukraine’s right to enter into such agreements.The top diplomat confirmed a significant shift in US military aid, stating that Washington is “no longer giving Ukraine weapons” but is now selling them.
The new model, he said, has European countries paying for the arms through NATO. “That’s another big change from the way this war was approached just a few - just under the Biden administration, for example,” he said.
Prospects for Direct Talks
Perhaps the most dramatic revelation was the potential for a direct meeting between Presidents Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, which Rubio said Trump suggested to the Kremlin leader. “Just the fact that Putin is saying, sure, I’ll meet with Zelenskyy – that’s a big deal,” Rubio stated, while acknowledging that a deal is not yet finalized.
He emphasized the importance of face-to-face dialogue. “This wasn’t happening for three and a half years. This was a stalemated war of death and destruction.”
Concessions
On the thorny issue of land concessions, Rubio was more circumspect, saying such negotiations “work best when they’re done privately.” He did, however, stress a fundamental point of the new push: “I think it’s common sense...in any negotiation to bring about the end of a war…it’s going to require both sides to receive but also to give.”
He dismissed the notion of an unconditional surrender by either side. “The only wars that don’t end that way are the ones that have unconditional surrender by one side or the other, and we’re not going to see that in this conflict,” he said.
The top diplomat concluded by emphasizing the final decision on where the lines are drawn will be “up to Putin and up to Zelenskyy and up to the Ukrainian side to decide what each of them can live with.”