US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the main contentious issue in the negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine is the 20 percent of the territory of Donetsk region that remains under Kiev's control.
„What they are literally arguing about right now is an area of approximately 30-50 kilometers and 20% of Donetsk region that remains under Ukrainian control. "We're trying to figure out, and I think we've made some progress, what the Ukrainians can live with, what will ensure their security going forward," Rubio said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.
The United States is working to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, but the decision to end it is up to Moscow and Kiev, the secretary of state said.
"Ultimately it's up to them. If they decide they don't want to end the war, it will continue. But we will try to end it," he said.
Rubio added that the United States is trying to figure out "whether we can bridge the differences between the parties" in the conflict. "To do that, we have to negotiate with both parties. There are some irrational people involved in this process who believe that we should only talk to Ukraine and not talk to Russia at all. "It is impossible to end the war between Russia and Ukraine without negotiations with Russia, but we also have to take into account the position of Ukraine," he said.
The United States believes that Russia and Ukraine are closer to a peace agreement than they have been in the last three years, but that this is still not enough to achieve the ultimate goal, he said.
“I think we have made some progress. We are closer, but still not enough. That could change,“ Rubio said.
He added that the administration has been working on a deal for 10 months, trying to find proposals “that both sides can live with“.
The secretary of state stressed that the final steps in this process will always be the most difficult and an agreement must be reached “soon“. Washington is assessing whether “it is worth spending time on this process as a mediator“ or whether it is time to focus on other important issues.
The US administration does not believe that Washington's continued unlimited support for Kiev is realistic, Rubio continued.
“Some people believe that our policy should simply be to continue funding Ukraine indefinitely while this war continues“, he said. “That is unrealistic. That is not reality and that is not going to happen.“
The US Secretary of State noted that the current Washington administration “has been saying this for a long time“. Rubio stressed that “support on this scale and in this volume cannot be provided“.
On December 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin received US Special Presidential Envoy Stephen Witkoff and entrepreneur Jared Kushner at the Kremlin. The key topic was the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. The meeting lasted approximately five hours. According to the Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, the content of the proposals contained in four documents for the US peace plan was discussed.