The US remains willing to help mediate an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday after Moscow launched a major attack on Kyiv and warned of further strikes on the capital, AFP reported.
Rubio made the comments after speaking by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, urged Washington to evacuate diplomats from the US embassy in Kyiv.
Rubio later downplayed suggestions that Moscow was urging the US to evacuate embassy staff from Kyiv, saying Russia had instead issued a broader warning that diplomatic facilities in the Ukrainian capital remained at risk.
“The US stands ready and prepared to help do whatever we can to help facilitate the end of this war, and hopefully the opportunity will present itself at some point,” Rubio said.
Russia said Monday that it planned to launch further strikes on Kyiv, including on what it described as Ukraine’s “decision-making centers,” after a weekend barrage of drones and missiles killed four people.
Moscow’s warning came after repeated Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital and amid renewed condemnation of Russian threats against diplomatic missions that have remained in Kyiv throughout much of the full-scale invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a Memorial Day message to the US, thanked Americans for their support and said Russia’s full-scale war was not only against Ukraine, but also against “a free, democratic, united Europe.”
“Without the US, there simply would have been no European freedom – and the 20th century proved this absolutely clearly,” Zelensky said.
He said Ukraine was grateful to the US for supporting its defense and to Americans who continue to stand with Ukraine, adding that America’s role in ending the war “can be one of leadership” because it is a country “which Russia fears.”
“This war must be ended – and ended in a dignified way,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X.