US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Washington has been in contact with Russian senior officials this week about ending the war, but no progress has been seen.
“We continue to engage with the Russian side – earlier this week, Monday or Tuesday. We’ve also had a conversation with them – not with Putin, but with some of Putin’s top officials – in hopes of reaching some common ground on a way forward that would lead to peace, and we’ve seen no progress on that,” he told Fox News Radio.
According to him, the US president has many options.
“I mean, he has options, as everybody knows, to impose secondary sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, which is a huge part of their revenue… but the best way forward is to stop shooting and start talking. But so far there has been no genuine interest on the Russian side to achieve that goal,” Rubio added.
On 29 July, US President Donald Trump said the deadline for Russia to make progress in ending the war against Ukraine was “10 days from today” or he would impose duties and other measures against Moscow. Before that, the US president said he was “very disappointed” with Putin.
The Kremlin said it had “taken into account” the statement of US President Donald Trump. At the same time, the speaker of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov noted that the “special military operation”, as the war against Ukraine is called in Russia, continues.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said that the US president’s words bring him closer to war with Russian Federation.
“Trump is playing ultimatum with Russia: 50 days or 10… he should remember two things: 1. Russia is not Israel or even Iran. 2. Every new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Medvedev wrote in social network X.