Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the mineral deal, sought by President Donald Trump, is “not the main topic on the agenda” for the meeting set with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow about whether or not we have a minerals deal,” he told reporters on board a flight to Saudi Arabia. “It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda.
“The minerals deal is on the table that’s continuing to be worked on – it’s not part of this conversation, per se,” he said, noting that Tuesday’s meeting in Jeddah can be considered successful even without securing such an agreement.
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“It’s certainly a deal the president wants to see done, but it doesn’t necessarily have to happen tomorrow,” Rubio added.
The Ukrainian delegation is set to include Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, Andrii Sybiha, minister of foreign affairs, Pavlo Palisa, colonel of armed forces of Ukraine and an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who was not only involved in initial talks with Russia following its February 2022 invasion, but who also survived a poisoning attack after a peace meeting in March that year.
Rubio will meet with the delegation in the city of Jeddah around noon local time on Tuesday.
“The important point in this meeting is to establish clearly their intentions, their desire, as they’ve said publicly now, numerous times, to reach a point where peace is possible,” Rubio said, adding that he will need to be assured that Kyiv is prepared to make some hard decisions, like giving up territory seized by Russia, in order to end the three-year war.
“Both sides need to come to an understanding,” he said. “The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it will be very difficult for Ukraine, in any reasonable time period, to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014. So the only solution to this war is diplomacy and getting them to a table where that’s possible.
“Then we’ll have to determine how far they are from the Russian position, which we don’t know yet either. And then once you understand where both sides truly are, it gives you a sense of how big the divide is and how hard it’s going to be,” Rubio explained. “I’m hoping it’ll be a positive interaction along those lines.”
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Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East who has increasingly been involved with the talks regarding Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News’ Dana Perino on “America’s Newsroom” Monday morning, that the Trump administration has “gone a long way” to “narrow the differences” when dealing with Moscow and to get it to the negotiating table – though he did not go into detail.
Witkoff suggested relations with Ukraine began to once again improve after Zelenskyy sent Trump a letter in which he apologized for the Oval Office exchange that went sour late last month after he refused to sign a mineral deal and angered the Trump administration – resulting in a series of explosive outbursts on live TV.
While a mineral deal is unlikely to be achieved this week, according to Rubio, he said he hopes that with a successful meeting in Jeddah, he can secure the resumption of aid to Ukraine, though he did not detail if this would include the defensive aid the Trump administration halted, despite Russia’s continued bombardment against Ukrainian targets, or the intelligence sharing which the U.S. also stopped following the Oval Office showdown.
“The pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve,” Rubio said. “I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that.”
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Rubio also said that Russia will see its own consequences if it doesn’t agree to negotiate on ending the war in Ukraine, including additional sanctions.
“It should be clear to everyone that the United States has tools available to also impose costs on the Russian side of this equation,” Rubio said. “But we hope it doesn’t come to that.
“What we’re hoping is that both sides realize that this is not a conflict that can end by military means,” he added.
On Friday, in a posting on the Truth Social platform, Trump threatened Russia with “large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions and Tariffs,” until a ceasefire and peace settlement are reached.
