Rubio Confirms Ukrainerussia Talks With US Role

(MENAFN- IANS) Washington, Feb 4, (IANS) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday confirmed that Ukrainian and Russian technical military teams are holding direct talks with US involvement, calling the engagement an important step even as he cautioned that the most difficult issues remain unresolved.

“For the first time in a very long time, we have technical military teams from both Ukraine and Russia meeting in a forum that we'll also be involved with,” Rubio told reporters, referring to discussions taking place in Abu Dhabi.

He said that US representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would also attend portions of the talks, underscoring Washington's continued diplomatic investment in efforts to end the war.

A US official, speaking on background, told IANS that the discussions had made headway.“Today's conversations between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia were productive, and will continue tomorrow morning,” the official said.

Rubio said the existence of talks alone should not be mistaken for a breakthrough, but described the engagement as meaningful.“Look, I don't want to say talks alone are progress, but it's good that there's engagement going on,” he said.

He warned that due to the sensitivity of the negotiations, tangible progress was unlikely to emerge publicly until a breakthrough occurred.“Progress is probably not going to be known even via leaks until we really have a breakthrough,” Rubio said.

The secretary said Washington had committed significant time and effort to the process over the past year.“We've committed a year to this. We think we've made real progress,” he said.

Rubio said the number of unresolved issues between Kyiv and Moscow had declined over the past year.“If you look at the checklist of open items that existed at this time last year, and the checklist of open items that remain now in terms of reaching a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, that list has been substantially diminished,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that the remaining issues were the hardest to resolve.“The bad news is that the items that remain are the most difficult ones, and meanwhile, the war continues,” Rubio said.

He said the United States would continue to invest“a very high level” of effort in the talks.“We are going to continue to do everything we can to see if there's a breakthrough,” Rubio said.

Rubio said efforts to end armed conflicts often appear futile until circumstances change suddenly.“Oftentimes it looks totally hopeless until you have this breakthrough that sometimes is unforeseen,” he said, citing Gaza as an example where persistence eventually produced results.

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