Live: US Secretary of State Rubio says Europeans will ‘have to be involved’ in Ukraine diplomacy
Issued on: 12/03/2025 - 06:47Modified: 12/03/2025 - 13:54
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that European allies will need to be involved in any eventual deal on Ukraine, which backed a US proposal for a 30-day truce with Russia. Rubio added that Moscow would likely seek the removal of European sanctions imposed on Russia since the war’s beginning. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.
Ukraine announced that it would back Washington's proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia following what Kyiv described as "significant" talks.
After more than eight hours of talks with Ukrainian officials in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the US would now present the mutually agreed proposal to Russia, leaving the next move up to Moscow.
During these discussions, the United States agreed to resume military assistance and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
Watch FRANCE 24's international affairs editor Philip Turle and Kyiv correspondent Gulliver Cragg break down the Ukrainian reaction to the sudden push for a diplomatic settlement to the now three-year invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday hailed this week's meeting in Saudi Arabia between US and Ukrainian officials as constructive, and said a potential 30-day ceasefire with Russia could be used to draft a broader peace deal.
Zelensky made the remark during a briefing in Kyiv, where he said Ukraine supported a US effort to end Russia's three-year-old invasion as soon as possible, and that the resumption of US military aid and intelligence sharing was very positive.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States will have contact with Russia on Wednesday about the agreement reached with Ukraine on a 30-day ceasefire and steps toward ending the war there.
"We all eagerly await the Russian response and urge them strongly to consider ending all hostilities," Rubio said during a stop in Ireland on his way back to Washington.
"If they say 'no,' then obviously we'll have to examine everything and sort of figure out where we stand in the world and what their true intentions are. If they say no, it'll tell us a lot about what their goals are and what their mindset is."
France and Britain remain committed to ensuring a "just and lasting" peace in Ukraine, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X.
Lecornu said he discussed Ukraine on Tuesday evening with his British counterpart John Healey on the sidelines of the Paris Forum on Defence and Strategy.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that European allies will need to be involved in any eventual deal on Ukraine, which backed a US proposal for a 30-day truce with Russia.
"I think that they have to be necessarily involved," Rubio told reporters on a refuelling stop in Ireland, noting that Russia would seek removal of European sanctions imposed on it since the start of the war.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that an expected minerals deal would give the United States a "vested interest" in Ukraine's security, although he stopped short again of promising formal guarantees.
"I wouldn't couch it as a security guarantee, but certainly, if the United States has a vested economic interest that's generating revenue for our people as well as for the people of Ukraine, we'd have a vested interest in protecting it," Rubio told reporters on a refuelling stop in Ireland.
"Certainly one of the things that provides for Ukraine's long-term prosperity and security is vibrant economic growth and development," he said.
Russian troops seized the villages of Dniproenerhiia and Novomarkove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the RIA state news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the defence ministry.
Russian forces also hit a transport vessel carrying ammunition for Ukrainian forces, the agency said.
Moscow's gains in eastern Ukraine come as its forces are waging battles in Russia's western Kursk region in an effort to eject Ukrainian forces who seized land there last August.
Russian ballistic missiles killed at least five civilians in Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, a day after the Trump administration lifted its suspension of military aid for Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion and Ukrainian officials signalled they were open to a 30-day ceasefire.
The Kremlin didn't comment on the agreement announced Tuesday between the US and Ukraine on the provision of further military support, including intelligence sharing, and the possibility of a ceasefire that Washington backs.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that it's important not to “get ahead” of the question of responding to the 30-day ceasefire proposal. He told reporters that Moscow is awaiting “detailed information” about it from the US and suggested Russia must get that before it can take a position.
Russian forces retook five settlements held by Ukrainian troops in Russia's western Kursk region, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.
One of the retaken villages, Kazach'ya Loknya, lies just north of Sudzha, which Russian forces have been storming since the weekend as they try to eject Ukrainians who have been clinging onto a slice of Kursk since last August.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Wednesday that military aid deliveries to neighbouring Ukraine through Poland have resumed following US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia.
"I confirm that arms deliveries via Jasionka (logistics hub) have returned to previous levels," Sikorski told reporters speaking alongside his Ukrainian counterpart in Warsaw, a day after US President Donald Trump's administration agreed to lift a freeze on military aid to Kyiv.
A Russian ballistic missile strike overnight on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa killed four people and damaged a Barbados-flagged cargo ship, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, four people died – citizens of Syria. At the time of the attack, the vessel was loading wheat for export to Algeria. It was a completely civilian vessel," Oleksiy Kuleba, vice prime minister for reconstruction wrote on social media.
A Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih killed a 47-year-old woman and caused a fire at an infrastructure facility, Dnirpopetrovsk regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said on Wednesday.
The attack also injured at least two other people, local official Oleksandr Vilkul said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The head of the CIA and the director of Russia's foreign intelligence agency have spoken by phone and agreed for their agencies to keep up regular contacts, Russian news reports said on Wednesday.
In the first such contact in several years, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and SVR chief Sergei Naryshkin spoke by phone on Tuesday and "agreed on regular contact" between their organisations "in order to contribute to the international stability and security as well as a decrease in confrontation in relations between Moscow and Washington".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Wednesday, speaking in the context of a possible Ukraine peace deal, that Moscow will avoid compromises that would jeopardise people's lives, Russian agencies reported.
He reiterated Russia's stance that it will under no conditions accept the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine, should there be a permanent peace settlement.
Lavrov made the remarks on Tuesday but the interview was published on Wednesday.
Russian air defence units intercepted and destroyed 21 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.
Twelve of the drones were downed over the territory of the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, while the rest were destroyed over the territories of the Kursk and Kaluga regions, as well as over the Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Moscow would make its own decisions about the conflict in Ukraine after Kyiv said it was ready to support Washington's proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, state news agency TASS reported.
"The shaping of the position of the Russian Federation does not take place abroad due to some agreements or efforts of some parties. The formation of the position of the Russian Federation takes place inside the Russian Federation," she said.
Russia on Tuesday said it could not rule out contact with the United States in the "next few days", after US President Donald Trump said he may speak to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week.
"We do not rule out contacts with US representatives within the next few days," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian state news agencies.
Welcome to our liveblog, where we post the latest news on the war in Ukraine. To read all about yesterday's key developments, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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