‘No
military solution’ to Ukraine war, Rubio says ahead of Saudi meetings
First
official meeting of two governments since disastrous Trump-Zelenskyy encounter
comes as Russia intensifies attacks
Oliver
Holmes in London and Andrew Roth in Washington
Tue 11 Mar
2025 02.42 CET
There is “no
military solution” to the conflict in Ukraine, US secretary of state Marco
Rubio has said ahead of high-stakes meetings on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia aimed
at repairing a severely damaged relationship that has left embattled Kyiv
without Washington’s support.
Ukraine’s
delegation, led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, will
meet Rubio, and other senior White House officials on what is seen as neutral
ground in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
Ukraine’s
position in the talks would be “fully constructive”, said Zelenskyy, its
president, on Monday, adding that he hoped for practical outcomes from the
negotiations on ending the Russian war in his country.
On his way
to Jeddah, Rubio stressed the need to gauge Kyiv’s readiness to make
concessions to reach peace.
He told
reporters on the plane: “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.
“I think
both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s 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.”
It will be
the first official meeting of the two governments since a disastrous Oval
Office argument between Zelenskyy and Donald Trump, after which the US leader
cut off crucial military assistance and intelligence sharing.
The two
presidents will not take part in the talks, although Zelenskyy was in Jeddah on
Monday to meet the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, whose government
has played a mediating role between Ukraine and Russia.
During the
meeting in Jeddah, the crown prince underscored the kingdom’s support for
international efforts to resolve Ukraine’s crisis and achieve peace, the Saudi
state news agency SPA reported early on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy
has also sent his foreign and defence ministers to Jeddah for the talks. On
Sunday, he posted: “We are fully committed to constructive dialogue, and we
hope to discuss and agree on the necessary decisions and steps.
“Realistic
proposals are on the table. The key is to move quickly and effectively.”
Russian
forces – emboldened after Ukraine lost support from its biggest backer – have
seized the moment, launching barrages of ballistic missile attacks while
attempting to surround thousands of Ukrainian troops who had maintained a
seven-month foothold in the Russian region of Kursk.
On the eve
of the talks, Russia launched air strikes targeting Kyiv and other parts of
Ukraine, with the Ukrainian air force saying the country was under a threat of
a missile attack.
The White
House has framed Trump’s Ukraine policy as intended to achieve a lasting
“peace” but the president has focused primarily on pressuring Zelenskyy to hand
over his country’s mineral wealth to the US.
After the
Oval Office crisis, Zelenskyy sought to patch up ties with the US leader. The
Ukrainian president says he is willing to sign a minerals deal, even though it
looks unlikely he will gain US security guarantees that Kyiv sees as vital to
prevent future Russian attacks.
With US
backing in doubt, Zelenskyy has sought to shore up European support. Still, he
has been put under pressure to salvage the relationship with Washington, which
has been Ukraine’s biggest backer since the 2022 Russian invasion.
A
spokesperson for the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he had spoken
to Trump on Monday and expressed a hope for “a positive outcome to the [Saudi]
talks that would enable US aid and intelligence sharing to be restarted”.
Starmer’s
spokesperson said UK and Ukrainian officials had also spoken over the weekend
and “they remained committed to a lasting peace”.
The Trump
aide Steve Witkoff said Washington expected substantial progress in Jeddah.
Asked on Fox News if he thought Zelenskyy could sign the minerals deal this
week, Witkoff said: “I am really hopeful. All the signs are very, very
positive.” Intelligence sharing would be discussed at the meetings, Witkoff
added.
However,
Rubio, the US secretary of state, told reporters en route to Jeddah that there
were still more details to be worked out on the minerals deal.
NBC News
reported on Sunday that Trump would require more than just the minerals deal in
order to resume deliveries of military aid and renew intelligence sharing with
Ukraine. The outlet reported that Trump expected Ukraine to agree to key
concessions for US support to resume, including a willingness to concede
territory to Russia as part of peace talks and movement toward elections as
well.
NBC and
other US media have also reported that Trump may want to see Zelenskyy step
down as part of that process. That stance has not been publicly confirmed by
the White House.
However,
European allies have been reassured that the US is close to resuming military
aid and intelligence sharing, and Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One
that the US was “just about” ready to resume aid. “We want to do anything we
can to get Ukraine serious about getting something done,” he said.
The
Ukrainian side is expected to propose a peace plan that features a halt to
drone and missile strikes, as well as a suspension of military activity in the
Black Sea. Zelenskyy has said the proposal would be a test of Russia’s
commitment to ending the war. So far, however, Vladimir Putin has shown no
interest in a ceasefire.
Trump has
said he would consider ending the suspension of intelligence sharing with Kyiv
and Ukrainian troops remain under intense pressure.
Russia’s
defence ministry has said its forces had recaptured three more settlements in
the Kursk region and Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev claimed Kyiv’s
forces were nearly surrounded. “The lid of the smoking cauldron is almost
closed. The offensive continues,” he posted on Telegram.
Russian
forces were reported to be closing in on the Ukrainian-held Russian town of
Sudzha. On Sunday, Ukraine’s general staff said it had repelled an
extraordinary attack by Russian sabotage and assault groups via a gas pipeline
in the area. About 100 Russian soldiers spent four days crawling through the
nine-mile-long (15km) pipeline that leads to Sudzha’s outskirts.
Inside
Ukraine, the country’s border guard said Russian forces were attempting to
create an active fighting zone in the north-eastern region of Sumy, across the
border from Kursk.
Kyiv’s top
general, however, rejected reports that Ukrainian troops fighting in the Kursk
region were at risk of encirclement by Russian forces backed by North Korean
troops.
Oleksandr
Syrskyi, who said he was visiting the forces fighting in Kursk without
providing an exact location, made the remark in a statement on social media. “A
number of settlements on the border, the names of which appear in the reports
of Russian propagandists, no longer actually exist – they have been destroyed
by the aggressor’s shelling,” Syrskyi said.
“Despite the
involvement of a significant number of Russian troops in the offensive,
reinforced by North Korean infantry, the enemy is suffering significant losses
in manpower and equipment,” he added.
Trump
suggested this weekend that Ukraine may not be able to continue fighting in the
war against Russia, even with support from the US. In an interview with Fox
News, while defending his decision to cut support to Ukraine, he said: “Well,
it may not survive anyway.”
Trump also
said Zelenskyy had taken from the US under the Biden administration like “candy
from a baby”. He repeated his claim that Zelenskyy was not “grateful” but did
describe him as “smart” and “tough”.
Additional
reporting by Aletha Adu
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