US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia can only be achieved through direct talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking ahead of planned talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Türkiye on Friday, Rubio told Fox News the only way to achieve a breakthrough was if Trump and Putin sat “across the table” from each other.
“I don’t know what the date or the place of that is yet, but that’s really the only chance at this point,” he said.
Trump had made similar remarks earlier, suggesting he might travel to Türkiye at short notice if the talks warranted it. “If something happened, I’d go on Friday if it was appropriate,” he said.
Russia is expected to begin talks on Friday with a Ukrainian delegation on a possible end to its invasion.
Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told the Interfax news agency that his delegation expects the Ukrainian side at 10 am Istanbul time .