US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media during a refueling stop at Shannon airport in Shannon, Ireland on March 12, 2025, while traveling by interviews with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia in participation in a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Canada.
Saul Loeb | Via Reuters
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump had not yet imposed sanctions on Russia during his current war with Ukraine because the White House still hopes that diplomacy will be able to end the war.
“As soon as you start doing this kind of thing, you get away from it,” said Rubio on Sunday on “Meet the Press” of NBC.
Rubio said that the coming week will be “very critical” for the White House, because it is “determined to know if it is a company in which we want to continue to participate”.
“There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic,” said Rubio, adding: “We are close, but we are not close enough.”
“Throughout this process, it is a question of determining, the two parties really want peace and how close they are or how far they are after 90 days of effort here … This is what we are trying to determine this week,” said Rubio about negotiations.
Rubio’s comments arise as Trump increases the pressure on Russia and Ukraine to conclude a peace agreement. Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, just before floating the possibility of more difficult sanctions against Moscow.
Rubio said Trump had “made real progress” at the end of the end of the war, but “these last two stages of this trip were always going to be the most difficult, and it must happen soon”.
“We cannot continue, as I said, to devote time and resources to this effort if it does not materialize,” he added.
Trump wondered on Saturday if Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to “stop war” against Ukraine.
“It makes me think that he may not want to stop war, he just makes me hit and must be treated differently, by” bank “or” secondary sanctions? “Too many people die !!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
His position came just after having a private meeting with Zelenskyy in Rome, which the White House described as a “productive discussion”.
