Rubio on new US sanctions against Russia: Trump's patience is not unlimited
Photo: Marco Rubio (Getty Images)
US Senator Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump’s patience was not unlimited and that he had both the ability and the options to impose sanctions on Russia, citing Rubio’s speech at a UN Security Council meeting.
Rubio said the war between Russia and Ukraine had proven to be an exceptionally difficult challenge. He noted that President Donald Trump and his team had worked hard on settlement efforts, devoting significant time and energy.
The senator added that Trump had shown "extraordinary patience" in avoiding additional sanctions against Russia. However, the current situation, he warned, was moving toward deeper escalation, citing the increased number of strikes and violations of NATO airspace. Rubio stressed that US patience was not unlimited.
He underlined that Trump had both the tools and options to impose further economic sanctions on Russia if necessary to halt the developments, and pointed out that the US president also had everything needed to provide both defensive and offensive weapons to help Ukraine protect itself.
According to Rubio, there would come a moment when the US would have to conclude that Russia had no interest in a peaceful resolution. At that point, he said, the president would have real options before him that he would act upon, a point Trump himself underscored in recent remarks.
He urged UN member states to do everything possible to help end the war and emphasized that it could not be resolved militarily, but would ultimately be settled at the negotiating table.
Fragile US readiness on sanctions against Russia
Trump has been threatening sanctions and tariffs against Moscow for several months. He even set a deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, but took no action after the deadline passed.
A few weeks ago, Trump also posted that he was prepared to impose "serious" sanctions on Moscow, but only on the condition that NATO countries stopped buying Russian oil and the European Union fully abandoned Russian energy imports.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump deliberately issued this ultimatum to the EU, knowing it would be nearly impossible to implement.
