US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emphasised that the United States will not pressure Ukraine into making territorial concessions to Russia as part of a potential peace agreement.
Source: Rubio in an interview with NBC News, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Rubio said that "the Ukrainians are not willing to give that up [referring to the Ukrainian territory demanded by Putin – ed.], and no one’s pushing Ukraine to give that up".
Quote: "He [Putin] is certainly making demands and asking for things that the Ukrainians and others are not willing to be supportive of, and that we’re not going to push them to give. And the Ukrainians are asking for things that the Russians are not going to give up on."
Details: The secretary of state added that the US is trying to "have a serious negotiation here and see if we can find any middle ground between two warring parties in a very difficult war, where the Russians feel, as they always do, like they have momentum on their side, and the Ukrainians, who have been incredibly brave and fighting back … have inflicted a tremendous amount of damage on the Russians."
Background:
On Sunday, Zelenskyy stated that he is only willing to discuss territorial issues with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin at a trilateral Ukraine-US-Russia meeting.Trump announced after the Alaska summit that he had reached an agreement with Putin for a "land swap" between Ukraine and Russia and that "Zelenskyy has to agree".Trump reportedly told Ukraine and European leaders that Putin wants to immediately discuss the conditions for ending the war rather than a pause in the hostilities, and Trump believes that would be better.According to Bloomberg, Trump informed European leaders and Zelenskyy that Putin is still demanding that Ukrainian troops withdraw from the entire territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, but is prepared to freeze the front in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. Zelenskyy has rejected this demand.On Sunday, Reuters published the demands for ending the war that Putin put forward during his meeting with Trump in Alaska.
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