Rubio: We do not know whether Russia is serious about ending war

It is currently unclear whether Russia is serious about ending the war and whether acceptable terms for Ukraine will be found that Russia would agree to.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

Rubio noted that the issues that need to be resolved to end this war have been narrowed. However, the bad news is that "they've been narrowed to the hardest questions to answer and work remains to be done in that front."

"We don't know if the Russians are serious about ending the war – they say they are – and under what terms they were willing to do it and whether we can find terms that are acceptable to Ukraine upon that Russia will always agree to. But we're going to continue to test it," Rubio said.

He stressed that other steps are being taken to put pressure on Russia to end the war. In particular, the United States has imposed additional sanctions on Russian oil, and in U.S. talks with India, commitments were obtained to halt further purchases of Russian oil. On the other hand, the PURL program continues: U.S. weapons are being sold to support Ukraine's war effort.

"So all these continue. Nothing has stopped. […] What we can't answer – but we're going to continue to test – is whether there is an outcome that Ukraine can live with and that Russia will accept," Rubio said.

He described as "progress" the fact that, for the first time in many years, at least at the technical level, military officials from both sides met last week. He added that there will be further meetings, including next Tuesday, "although it may not be the same group of people."

"We're going to continue to do everything we can to play this role of bringing this war to the end. I don't think anybody in this room would be against a negotiated settlement to this war so long as the conditions are just and sustainable. And that's what we aim to achieve and we're going to continue to try to achieve it even as all these other things continue to happen on the sanctions front and so forth," Rubio concluded.

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine