WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States said Thursday it has now finalized “presenting to all parties” its framework of a durable and lasting peace in Ukraine, after high-level talks in the French capital, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ending the day by calling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to “convey… the same message the US team communicated to the Ukrainian delegation and our European allies in Paris.”
State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce praised “the encouraging reception” of the US framework in Paris saying it showed that peace was “possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement.”
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
Speaking to reporters at a daily briefing, Bruce cited US President Donald Trump’s position that “the madness has to come to an end quickly and completely” and Rubio’s warnings to Moscow that Washington’s patience was running out.
“Now, the civilized world waits to see if Russia is, indeed, serious about ending this catastrophe,” she went on to add.
Asked whether her statement suggested that Russia was not a part of the civilized world, Bruce replied: “I guess we’re waiting to see for a minute.”
She went on to add: “I think, clearly, Russia has an interest in being part of the civilized world, as we all do. And we take actions that make it easy and appropriate for us to do business with and to be embraced by countries that think accordingly, that peace matters.”
Full Statement (Translated): UK, France and Germany After Moscow Talks
The US delegation is expected to depart Paris early Friday morning. As Kyiv Post reported earlier, leading the delegation in the trip is Secretary Marco Rubio, as well as Special Presidential Envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg.
The delegation also includes State Department’s Director of Policy Planning, Michael Anton, who had represented the US in a recent round of talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia.
When asked about the metrics the US will look at to determine Moscow’s seriousness, Bruce said the judgement would be “based on their actions, not their words.”
“We have seen the actions that our friends the Ukrainians have taken, which is a commitment to a full ceasefire, the nature of the actions that they have said that they would do. That has been clear from the start and it’s understandable,” she said.
As for next steps, the UK has announced hosting further talks next week. While it wasn’t immediately clear whether the US would be participating with the same delegation in London talks, Bruce said citing Rubio’s previous statement, “these are important meetings, but. we aren’t going to be having meetings about meetings.”
Kyiv Post has learned from diplomatic sources that while yesterday’s French-led talks were pre-planned among Allied countries, it was notably driven by Russia’s deadly attack on Sumy last weekend, which was harshly criticized in both sides of the Atlantic.
In the meantime, the Paris talks also came amid reports that US had been derailing G7 condemnation of Sumy attack so as not to disrupt peace efforts.
When pressed about the matter by Kyiv Post during Thursday’s State Department briefing, Bruce dismissed media reports as “conspiracy theories.”
“It’s clear to the world that that was a horrible strike,” she said of Russia’s Sumy attack.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
Putin’s Worst Nightmare
