Ukraine Has Agreed To Enter Truce Negotiations With Moscow: Rubio
Update(1745ET): Coming out of the Jeddah talks with the Ukrainian delegation, which lasted over eight hours, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued a statement hailing that Kiev has agreed to enter negotiations with Russia to end the war.
“Today, we’ve made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations to end this conflict in a way that’s enduring and sustainable,” Rubio stated.
The 30-Day ceasefire aspect which was announced earlier appears designed to jump-start direct talks – with the intent that the guns would go silent to allow for talks to begin in earnest. It appears akin to a ‘freeze’ of the front lines of the conflict (something which Putin is likely to reject, seeing in in a possible ploy for Ukraine to rearm and regroup).
Rubio explained before reporters:
The offer is to stop the shooting. The goal here is the only way out – to end this war is to negotiate out of it. There’s no military solution to this war. The solution to this war and the way to end it and to achieve the President’s objective of peace is to negotiate.
But before you can negotiate you have to stop shooting at each other, and that’s what the President has wanted to see, and that’s what – that’s the commitment we got today from the Ukrainian side, their willingness to do that. Obviously, now that will be delivered to the Russians.
On communicating the plan to Russia, Rubio said “It’ll be delivered to them directly through multiple channels, meaning not only will they obviously see it – we’ve – it’ll be communicated to them through our diplomatic channels, through conversations, and other methods. But they’ll obviously be well aware.”
“And our hope is that the Russians will say yes, that they will also agree, so the shooting will stop, the killing will stop, the dying will stop, and the talks can begin about how to end this war permanently in a way that’s acceptable and enduring for both sides,” the US top diplomat added.
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An apparent breakthrough in Jedda talks between the US and Ukraine, as the United States has announced it “will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine.”
The Zelensky government has also “expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation,” the statement said.
Via Reuters
“The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace,” it added. This comes after a reported over eight hour-long meeting between the US and Ukrainian delegations in the Saudi port city on Tuesday. No doubt, the Ukrainians came hat in hand, ready to please Trump after relations had fallen off a cliff with the Zelensky Oval Office confrontation earlier this month.
Shortly before the announced US-Ukraine…