(AFP) – Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the United States will examine Russia’s requested conditions for agreements with Ukraine, but cautioned that a peace deal would take time.
“It won’t be simple. It’ll take some time, but at least we’re on that road and we’re talking about these things,” Rubio told a news conference in Jamaica. Russia and Ukraine agreed in parallel separate talks with US envoys in Saudi Arabia to halt strikes in the Black Sea, as President Donald Trump pushes for an end to the war.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that a revival of a deal on Black Sea shipping was subject to “a number of conditions” and that Russia was discussing sanctions relief from the United States. “We’re going to evaluate that. Some of those conditions include sanctions that are not ours. They belong to the European Union,” Rubio said.
He said that the US negotiators would meet and “then we’ll present that to the president, who will ultimately make a decision about what the next step” is. “I think it’s a good thing that we have both the Ukrainians and the Russians talking about ceasefires, be they energy or be they potentially in the Black Sea,” Rubio said.
Rubio had earlier called on Russia to accept without preconditions a proposed 30-day general ceasefire agreed by Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, renewed the call on Russia to accept without conditions and said it was “much too early” to consider lifting sanctions.
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