Moscow responds to Rubio’s controversial statement on support for Ukraine
Photo: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Getty Images)
Sergey Lavrov said that statements by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio supporting Ukraine, in his view, effectively erase the differences between Washington’s and European countries’ approaches to resolving the conflict, according to RIA Novosti: USA.
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, statements by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding support for Ukraine indicate that there are effectively no longer any differences in the positions of the United States and European countries on resolving the conflict.
"Given what Marco Rubio said — and I have a working relationship with him; just two weeks ago we discussed the Ukrainian situation — given what he said about support for Ukraine, there are, in fact, no differences left in the approaches of the US and Europe,” Lavrov said.
US and Europe: Common line or different emphases
At the same time, the Russian foreign minister claimed that US foreign policy appears more "positive," arguing that the administration of Donald Trump has, from the outset, supported dialogue with Russia.
Lavrov also referred to last year’s agreements between the presidents of Russia and the US reached at a summit in Alaska, which, according to him, concerned possible ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
Moscow’s position on negotiations
Lavrov argued that if the US side had truly advanced its own initiatives for settlement, negotiations could have started much earlier and, in his claim, hostilities would have already ended.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States does not act as a neutral mediator in Russia’s war against Ukraine. According to him, Washington continues to support Ukraine while maintaining political and economic pressure on Russia.
