A direct conversation between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin may be the only thing that can break the “logjam” in the talks for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.
Trump, Rubio told CBS News’ “Meet the Press,” has already said that he wants the talk to happen, so “hopefully that’ll be worked out soon as well.”
Trump is expected to speak by phone with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Monday, but the mechanics of setting up a face-to-face meeting with Putin would require “a little bit of work,” said Rubio.
“But the president wants to do it,” he said of Trump. “He wants to do it as soon as feasible. I think the Russian side has also expressed a willingness to do it, so now it’s just a question of bringing everyone together, and figuring out where and when that meeting will happen and what it will be about.”
Rubio is in Rome for the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, who has offered space at the Vatican for peace talks, including a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“It’s a very generous offer that may be taken up on,” said the secretary. “I mean, it would be a site that all parties would feel comfortable. So hopefully we’ll get to that stage where talks are happening on a regular basis and that the Vatican will have the opportunity to be one of the options.”
Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Saturday about a “variety of things,” including his readout of how the latest peace talks in Turkey went.
“There were 1,000 prisoners that were going to be exchanged, and that, from a humanitarian standpoint, is very positive,” said Rubio. “He explained to me that they are going to be preparing a document outlining their requirements for a ceasefire that would then lead to broader negotiations…hopefully it’s a document that is close enough to what the Ukrainians want to be able to get to that point and maybe work out those differences.”
Meanwhile, the United States is willing to do what it takes to bring the countries together for talks, and is trying to determine if Putin is serious about negotiating.
But if the Russians’ plans have “unrealistic” requirements, “then we’ll have a different assessment,” said Rubio.
“There’s some element of patience that is required. On the other hand, we don’t have time to waste,’ he said. “There are a lot of other things happening in the world that we also need to be paying attention to. So we don’t want to be involved in this process of just endless talks, there has to be some progress, some movement forward.”
Meanwhile, the Senate will ultimately act on sanctions against Russia, but Congress has tried to give Trump space and time to negotiate.
“We’ve advised the Russians repeatedly now for almost two months that this was coming if no progress was made, so I think that’s just coming to fruition now,” said Rubio. “And it’s one of the things that I confirmed, again, being with [Sen.] Lindsey Graham, this week in Turkey, is they’re now up to 77 votes. He thinks they could get close to 80 or more. And that’s just a fact, and something we’ve told the Russians about for weeks was coming.”
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