WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted Tuesday that President Donald Trump had offered no concessions to Russia, as he rejected criticism over the administration’s Ukraine policy at a Senate hearing.
“He hasn’t gotten a single concession,” Rubio said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rubio was responding to Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
She hit back that Trump, since returning to the White House, has given Putin more incentive to drag out negotiations and seize more territory.
Due to Chinese support for Russia and “because President Trump has given away our leverage, Putin doesn’t feel pressured to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine,” she said.
After Putin call, Trump says Russia and Ukraine to start ‘immediate’ talks on ceasefire
Rubio said that Trump, who spoke again to Putin by telephone on Monday, does not want to impose fresh sanctions on Russia – a step taken on Tuesday by the European Union.
“If, in fact, it is clear that the Russians are not interested in a peace deal and they just want to keep fighting a war, it may very well come to that point,” Rubio said.
Trump “believes that right now, if you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there’s value in us being able to talk to them and drive them to get to the table,” Rubio said.
Trump briefly stopped US military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine after a disastrous meeting on February 28 with President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom the US president accused of ingratitude for past US aid.
Pressed on whether the United States was still meeting Ukraine’s defense needs, Rubio acknowledged trouble providing anti-missile Patriots but said it was a logistical issue.
“To the extent that the Ukrainians have asked for anything additional, what they’ve asked for is air defenses – Patriot units – which, frankly, we don’t have,” Rubio said.
He said the United States was asking NATO allies to transfer Patriots to Ukraine to defend airspace over Kyiv and elsewhere.
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