The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump will not support Europeʼs request to tighten sanctions on Russia, saying the United States still wants to have room to negotiate a peace deal.
Politico writes about this.
At the NATO summit on June 25, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders will try to persuade Trump to impose additional sanctions on Moscow, especially after Putin repeatedly sabotaged US attempts to negotiate a ceasefire with Ukraine.
"If we do what everyone here wants, which is come in and crush them with even more sanctions, weʼll probably lose the ability to talk to them about a ceasefire, and then whoʼs going to talk to them?" Rubio said in an interview on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Trump “will know the right time and place” for new economic restrictions, and the administration is working with Congress to provide the president with the necessary flexibility, Rubio said. But once that happens, he added, it will mean the window for negotiations with Russia is likely to close.
Rubio added that because the talks have stalled, Moscow believes it can achieve its territorial goals on the battlefield. Washington believes that doing so will be much more difficult than the Russians believe.
A bipartisan bill on sanctions against Russia has the support of 82 senators. The document proposes a 500% tariff on imports from countries that buy Russian oil, petroleum products, natural gas or uranium. In addition, the sanctions would prohibit US citizens from buying Russian sovereign debt.
The package would also include a number of other restrictions, including a ban on US financial institutions from investing in entities linked to the Russian government. After the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran, the US Senate postponed consideration of the new sanctions until at least July.
Negotiations in Istanbul
On May 16, the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia since 2022 were held in Istanbul. The meeting lasted a little over an hour. According to journalists, Russia demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from a number of territories to ensure a ceasefire and threatened to occupy the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov reported that at the meeting, the Ukrainian and Russian sides discussed a prisoner exchange in the "1,000 for 1,000" format and a ceasefire. The parties reached an agreement on the exchange — three prisoner exchanges in this format have already taken place.
On May 19, Trump spoke with Putin, as well as with Zelensky and a number of European leaders. Putin said after the conversation that he was ready to work on a memorandum with Ukraine that includes a ceasefire. Trump says that Russia and Ukraine “will immediately begin negotiations on a ceasefire and, more importantly, an end to the war”.
On June 2, the second round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul. The parties agreed on new exchanges of certain categories of prisoners of war in the format of "all for all". Kyiv also handed over to Moscow a list of abducted Ukrainian children who need to be returned.
During the negotiations, Russia submitted a memorandum demanding that Ukraine recognize the annexation of Crimea, Russian rule over 4 Ukrainian regions, abandon reparations, NATO membership, limit the size of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, etc. President Zelensky called this an "ultimatum" that would not be taken seriously.
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