Trump, Putin meeting depends on progress toward ending Ukraine war, Rubio says

A possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin "will largely depend on whether we can make any progress on ending the war in Ukraine," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

Rubio said he discussed such a meeting when he met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, telling Lavrov and Russian officials: "There isn't going to be a meeting until we know what the meeting is going to be about."

"I think when that meeting happens will largely depend on whether we can make any progress on ending the war in Ukraine," Rubio told journalist Catherine Herridge in an interview broadcast on X.

Following the talks in Saudi Arabia, Trump - who spoke on the phone with Putin last week - said on Tuesday that he would probably meet with Putin before the end of the month. Rubio said: "I don't know the timing of it."

Rubio said Trump wants to know if Russia is serious about ending the war in Ukraine, triggered by Moscow's invasion of its neighbour three years ago.

"The only way is to test them, to basically engage them and say, 'Okay, are you serious about ending the war? And if so, what are your demands? Are your public demands and your private demands different?'" Rubio said.

"The only thing we agreed upon is that we're going to talk about peace. What they offer, what they're willing to concede to, what they're willing to consider, will determine whether they're serious about peace or not," he said. "We're just not at that stage yet."

Trump's bid to try and end the war left Ukraine and European allies concerned they would be cut out of any peace talks, but Rubio said the U.S. has consulted with all.

Reuters