Donetsk region remains main point of dispute in negotiations – Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated this in an interview with Fox News.

"Ultimately, it's going to be up to them. If they decide they do not want to end the war, then the war will continue, but we're going to try to bring it to an end," Rubio said.

According to him, President Donald Trump's administration is trying to determine whether the US can help the parties overcome their disagreements, and is therefore conducting active diplomacy.

"To do that, we have to talk to both sides. We have some irrational people involved in this issue. People who believe we should only talk to the Ukrainian side and not talk to the Russian at all. But you can't end a war between Russia and Ukraine without talking to Russia, but you also take into account the Ukrainian position," he noted.

He also claimed that the main point of disagreement in the negotiations right now is roughly 20% of Donetsk region that remains under Ukraine's control.

"What they're literally fighting over now is about 30 to 50 kilometer space and the 20% of Donetsk region that remains [under Ukraine's control]. And so what we have tried to do, and I think we've made some progress, is figure out what can the Ukrainians live with that gives them security guarantees for the future," Rubio said.

Responding to a question about US support for Ukraine, the secretary of state said that the current US administration does not consider realistic the approach that envisions unlimited US support for Kyiv.

"Some of these people have this notion that our policy should be just continue to fundUkraine in unlimited amounts for as long as the war takes. That's not realistic and that's not going to happen," he said.

The head of the US foreign policy department added that the Trump administration has long said it is impossible to provide support of such scale and volume.

As Ukrinform reported, the Kremlin called Tuesday's negotiations with American representatives useful but noted that no compromise peace plan for Ukraine has been reached.

Photo: Office of the President