Ukraine must make concessions in any peace deal, Rubio says

Ukraine must make territorial concessions as part of any peace deel, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, citing The New York Times.

“I think both sides need to understand that there is no military solution to this situation. The Russians cannot take over all of Ukraine, and it is clear that it will be very difficult for Ukraine to force the Russians to return to the positions they had in 2014 in any reasonable period of time,” the Secretary of State told reporters before arriving in Saudi Arabia.

Rubio said that future negotiations would determine what concessions Russia was willing to make.

“We don’t know how far apart the sides really are.”

According to him, the American delegation would discuss the issue of restoring military aid to Ukraine if Kiev really showed that it was ready for peace.

"The American delegation wants to make sure that Kiev is ready to make difficult decisions, just as Moscow must take difficult steps to end this conflict, or at least somehow stop it," Rubio added.