Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US is considering additional levers to put pressure on Russia as peace talks have failed to make meaningful progress.
In an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, Rubio said ongoing conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle have yet to bear fruit.
“Earlier this week, on Monday or Tuesday, we had a whole conversation with some of Putin’s top people in hopes of arriving at some understanding on a path forward that would lead to peace. And we’ve not seen any progress on that,” the secretary said.
A third round of peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia earlier this month ended after less than an hour, with the sides failing to establish a cease-fire but instead agreeing to a prisoner swap involving around 1,200 people.
The talks were held in Istanbul a little more than a week after President Trump threatened “very severe tariffs” against Putin if he fails to commit to a cease-fire within 50 days in the Ukraine war — which has raged for more than three-and-a-half years.
Rubio alluded to what kinds of measures the US could impose on Russia should peace talks continue to stall, including secondary sanctions on the country’s oil sales — which he said constitute “a huge part of their revenue,” as well as “powerful” new banking sanctions.
“Again, I think our hope is to avoid that and to sort of figure out a way that we get the fighting to stop. We think that’s the best path forward,” Rubio said.
“We’re open to some different paths, but the best path forward is to have the shooting stop and the talking start. But so far, there’s not been, what we feel at least, a sincere interest on the Russian side in achieving that objective.”
On July 14, Trump announced the US would be sending “billions” of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine via NATO as an additional means of pushing Putin to work toward ending the war.
“So, we’ll continue to be available and willing to participate in something like that if it becomes available. But, obviously, the president is not going to wait forever,” Rubio said.
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