Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes the “only way” the war in Ukraine ends is with President Trump — whom he described as a “lover of peace” — sitting across the table from Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“I think that’s the only chance we have at peace at this point, given everything we’ve seen over the last few weeks,” Rubio told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday, reiterating remarks Trump made earlier that “nothing’s going to happen” until the two come face to face.
“There’s been talks, there’s been negotiations, there’s been trips and meetings — but in the end, I think we’ve reached the conclusion, rightfully so, as the president has, that the only way this is going to happen, if it has a chance to happen, the only way it happens is, if the president directly engages with Vladimir Putin,” he added.
Rubio, who is leading a US delegation in Turkey for talks — proposed by Putin— aimed at settling the bloodiest European conflict since World War II, lauded Trump as a peace-centric president.
“The president, frankly, is a lover of peace,” the top US diplomat said.
“This is a person that wants to stop wars and prevent wars and end wars. That’s what the president endeavors to do,” Rubio continued.
“I still don’t understand why some would be critical of the president,” he added. “They should be happy that the president of the most powerful nation on earth is a peacemaker who seeks to prevent wars, seeks to end wars, and seeks to stop existing wars.”
“That, I think, is something we should be very proud of.”
Trump, 78, had made ending the war a top objective of his second term’s foreign policy.
The president, at times, has expressed frustration with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin for the lack of progress toward peace.
As Rubio noted, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Thursday that he doesn’t believe a truce is possible unless he pow-wows with Putin.
“Nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together,” he said.
“He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there,” Trump said of the Russian president’s notable absence in Turkey.
“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” the president added. “But we’re going to have to get it solved cause too many people are dying.”
Zelensky flew to Turkey for the talks but Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov represented Kyiv in negotiations after Putin failed to show.
“After we understood the level of the Russian delegation, we saw that they unfortunately are very unserious about real negotiations,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine is believed to be interested in getting Russia to agree to the US-proposed 30-day cease-fire during the talks in Istanbul.
Zelensky has also called on the US, Europe and the global south to further sanction Russia if they fail to agree to the long sought-after pause in the conflict.
