Rubio: We are far from a peace deal, but there is progress

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that the parties are still far from concluding a peace agreement in the Russian war against Ukraine. The official told this in an interview with ABC News channel.

The journalist reminded Rubio that after the Alaska summit, a truce was not reached, as previously stated by US president Donald Trump.

"Well, I don't think he [the US leader] has changed his mind at all. I think that in the end, if all these efforts fail, Russia will have to bear additional consequences. But we are trying to avoid this by reaching a peace agreement. And it will not be easy. It's going to take a lot of work," Rubio said.

According to him, during the talks with dictator Vladimir Putin in Alaska, "things were identified that gave some progress in some areas."

Now, the secretary of state added, Ukraine needs to be involved in order to get a peace agreement: "That's why the president [Trump] called him [Zelenskyy] right after we got on the plane [in Alaska], within an hour. He talked to him for a long time."

That is why the leader of Ukraine and partners will visit Washington on August 18 to continue working on the deal, Rubio said.

"We've made progress in the sense that we've identified potential areas of agreement, but there are still some big areas of disagreement. So we are still very far away. So we are not on the verge of a peace agreement. But I think progress has been made [towards it]," the official summarized.

• On the August 15 summit between the US President and the dictator, as well as further developments read in the chronicle by LIGA.net.