US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that US President Donald Trump wants the Russia-Ukraine war to end and hopes for progress with both nations in the coming days.
Stressing the significance of Thursday’s peace talks in Istanbul, Rubio told reporters on day two of a NATO gathering in Türkiye that the alliance would continue efforts to ensure there are no “weak links” within the group, adding that the Russia-Ukraine conflict remains the foremost issue.
“The president of the United States has been abundantly clear he wants the war to end,” Rubio said, adding that Trump is ready to support any mechanism that would bring about lasting peace.
Highlighting NATO’s purpose of preventing wars, Rubio said that Trump “wants to end wars and that’s the hope with Russia and Ukraine. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days in that regard, but we want to see progress made.”
Rubio stressed that “there is no military solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This war is going to end not through a military solution, but through a diplomatic one.”