Rubio denies Zelensky and reiterates that the end of the war requires Ukraine and Russia to make concessions

The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, denied this Friday the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, who assured that Washington has conditioned security guarantees on the resignation of Donbas, and has reiterated that the end of the war requires both Moscow and kyiv making concessions.

Rubio has assured that “it is a lie” that the United States spoke with Zelensky in those terms. “It’s a shame he said it, because he knows it’s not true,” he lamented in statements to the media before taking a plane in Paris, where he participated in a G7 meeting, heading to the United States.

“The security guarantees will not come into force until the war has ended (…) What he was told very clearly, and he should have understood, is that the security guarantees only come once the war has ended, but that was not conditional on him giving up territory,” Rubio said.

“I don’t know why he says these things. They are simply not true. We have told the Ukrainian side what the Russians insist on. We are not advocating for it. We have explained it to them. The decision is theirs. We have never told them to accept it or reject it,” said Rubio, visibly upset.

“The decision, ultimately, depends on Ukraine. If they do not want to make certain decisions or make certain concessions, then the war will continue. The same goes for the Russian side. If they do not want to make certain concessions to the Ukrainian side, the war will continue,” Rubio has warned.

On the other hand, the head of US diplomacy has also ruled out that Washington plans to divert part of its capabilities and weapons that it allocates to Ukraine to cover possible needs in the Middle East, as some media outlets have published in recent days.

“Nothing has been diverted yet, although it could, frankly (…) They are our weapons,” said Rubio, who stressed that in the event that the United States has a “military need” to replenish its stocks or “comply with a mission of national interest,” they will always have preference regarding their weapons.

“I think that is the case for all countries in the world, unless they are a country that does not want to survive (…) If we need something for the United States, and it is American, we are going to reserve it first for the United States,” he concluded.