Rubio: "If the US "crushes" Russia with sanctions, who will talk to Moscow about a ceasefire"

President Donald Trump will buck Europe’s pleas to ratchet up sanctions on Russia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday, saying the U.S. still wants room to negotiate a peace deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders are hoping to convince Trump later on Wednesday to add more sanctions on Moscow.

“If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the ceasefire and then who’s talking to them?,” Rubio said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Trump will “know the right time and place” for new economic measures and the administration is working with Congress to make sure they allow Trump the appropriate flexibility, Rubio said. But once that happens, he added, it means the window for talking with Russia is likely closed.