US Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes that the conflict in Ukraine will be ended “very soon“ thanks to the “significant progress“ achieved in the negotiations.
He stated this at a press conference in Geneva after a meeting with the Ukrainian delegation.
Rubio stressed that Washington is committed to “getting this over with as quickly as possible“, noting that he is “very optimistic“. "We are very optimistic that we will achieve this goal in a very reasonable time frame, very soon," the secretary of state said.
The diplomat explained that he could not give an exact deadline for ending the conflict, as the work is ongoing, but speed is key.
"Whether it is Thursday, Friday, Wednesday, Monday or next week, we want this to happen soon, because people are suffering," he added.
It takes some time to determine a timetable for resolving the Ukrainian crisis, Rubio said.
The role of the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance in resolving the conflict in Ukraine is yet to be discussed, Rubio said.
"This is a "living" document, changing daily. There are questions, for example, about assets or the role of the EU and NATO. We just met with national security advisers from European countries. We need to discuss these issues with them because they affect them“, he said.
Rubio did not rule out the possibility of a new meeting between US President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky.
"The Russian side has not yet expressed its position on the agreements to resolve the conflict between the US and Ukraine", the US Secretary of State said.
„Obviously the Russians have a say here, don't they?“, the Secretary of State said. He specified that the US is currently working on agreements with the Ukrainian side, after which they will be transferred to the Russian Federation. "They're going to have to agree to that," Rubio added.
He said changes to the Ukraine plan could be made in the coming days because of the rapid pace of the negotiations.
"I'm not going to speculate or go into detail about specific points in the latest version of the proposal because, frankly, it could evolve and change even more by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," Rubio said at a news conference in Geneva.