Rubio Says the Peace Deal's Timing Depends on Russia, Ukraine, and EU Partners

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that while the United States is committed to achieving peace, it is impossible to provide a precise timeline for reaching an agreement.

Rubio stated this during a briefing with journalists en route to Miami, according to the State Department on March 28.

“We’re going to – we’re trying to achieve peace. We’re committed to trying to achieve peace as long as it takes. That doesn’t mean that I can guarantee you that there’s going to be an agreement in a week or a month. I just can’t put a timeframe on it because it doesn’t depend on us,” Rubio said.

“It depends on the Russians and it depends on the Ukrainians. It also depends on our partners in Europe who have sanctions that will have to be taken into account, I believe, as part of any final deal,” he emphasized.

Rubio also mentioned the need for further progress at the technical level before elevating negotiations to higher diplomatic discussions and the plans to consult with the negotiating team that participated in recent discussions in Saudi Arabia.

“Well, I think you have to make more progress on a technical level at this point, but we’ll see. We’re going to analyze it. As I said, when they arrive back from Saudi Arabia I want to sit and talk to our team that was on the ground and get a better sense how those negotiations went, because a lot of it isn’t just what was written and what was said over 12 hours,” he concluded.

Previously, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that the Russian government reserves the right to disregard the informal moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure. His comments, reported by state news agencies TASS and Interfax, accused Kyiv of violating the agreement.