Rubio says Ukraine must make territorial concessions in any peace deal

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Ukraine will have to make concessions regarding the territory that Russia has occupied since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war, according to The New York Times.

Rubio made the remarks during a flight to the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where a meeting between Ukrainian and American delegations is scheduled for March 11.

"The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form," the secretary said.

The official refused to offer the outline of a potential agreement but made it clear that concessions from both sides will play a central role in the diplomacy.

Rubio believes that Ukraine and Russia should come to the understanding that there is no military solution to this situation.

"The Russians can't conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it'll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014."

He added that in future negotiations with Moscow, it will be necessary to determine what Russia is willing to concede

• In February, Pentagon chief Hegseth stated that restoring Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders and its accession to NATO are unrealistic objectives.
• In March, Trump's security adviser Waltz claimed that to achieve peace, Ukraine would supposedly need to make territorial concessions in exchange for future security guarantees.
• A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Ukraine had not received any official proposals from the United States or other partners regarding territorial concessions in favor of Russia. The official noted that the diplomatic ministry remains calm about the verbal formulations circulating in the media, especially when it comes to responses to journalists' questions during interviews.