TEL AVIV—President Donald Trump will likely meet Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week and still hopes to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
Trump has repeatedly threatened sanctions against Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not compromise. But he has not followed through even as Russia ramps up attacks, frustrating Ukraine.
Trump has had “multiple calls with Putin, multiple meetings with Zelenskyy, including probably next week again in New York”, where leaders will gather for the UN General Assembly, Rubio told reporters in Israel.
“He’s going to keep trying. If peace is possible, he wants to achieve it,” Rubio said.
“At some point the president may conclude it’s not possible. He’s not there yet, but he could get to that point.”
Rubio pointed to a figure previously cited by Trump, saying that Russia lost 20,000 soldiers in fighting in July alone.
Trump a month ago welcomed Putin to Alaska — the first time a Western nation has allowed the Russian leader to visit since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — and days later met with Zelenskyy alongside European leaders at the White House.
Rubio said that Trump was unique in being able to speak to Putin as well as Zelenskyy and the Europeans. AFP
“If somehow he were to disengage from this, or sanction Russia and say, ‘I’m done’, then there’s no one left in the world that could possibly mediate the end,” Rubio said.
Trump came into office vowing to end the war within a day, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden for Russia’s invasion and criticizing the billions of dollars provided by the United States to Ukraine.
At a February 28 meeting at the White House that stunned US allies, Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berated Zelenskyy, accusing him of ingratitude, and then briefly cut off US military and intelligence support for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has since met Trump twice and each time gone out of his way to praise the US president and voice appreciation for American support.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has demanded that allies stop buying Russian oil before he moves on punishing Moscow, and told them to hit China with tariffs.
But Trump’s requests do not seem feasible, and the EU notes that it has already hammered the Kremlin with sanctions.
Meanwhile, diplomats fear it could be a ploy by Trump to again stall on taking a tough stance against Russia himself.
In a Truth Social post over the weekend, Trump said he would impose “major sanctions” on Moscow if all NATO countries stopped buying Russian oil.
The 27-nation EU has already banned most imports of Russian oil after the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, slashing the share of oil it imports from Russia from 29 percent in early 2021 to two percent by mid-2025.
Currently Hungary and Slovakia, both countries friendly to both Moscow and Trump, still buy oil from Russia.
The EU is planning to end that entirely and has announced a plan to phase out purchases of all Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has said Brussels is “looking at phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster” as it works with partners on toughening sanctions against Moscow.
Other officials have suggested they plan to stick broadly to a timeline EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen called “very ambitious” after talks with his US counterpart last week. AFP
