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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he hopes a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine could happen within “days” if Russia agrees to it.
He told this to reporters during a refueling stop in Ireland, on his way from Saudi Arabia to Canada where G7 foreign ministers will hold a meeting, Ukrinform reports, citing The New York Times.
“Here’s what we’d like the world to look like in a few days: Neither side is shooting at each other — not rockets, not missiles, not bullets, nothing, not artillery. The shooting stops, the fighting stops, and the talking starts,” he said.
Rubio said one of his main goals at the Group of 7 meeting was to rally the other countries—Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, all supporters of Ukraine—to form a united front in encouraging peace talks.
He said a “perfect statement” to be issued from the meeting “would be that the United States has done a good thing for the world in bringing this process forward, and now we all eagerly await the Russian response and urge them strongly to consider ending all hostilities, so people will stop dying, so bullets will stop flying and so a process can begin to find a permanent peace.”
Ukrainian officials want to ensure several issues are addressed in any talks, he said, including exchanges of prisoners of war, the release of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and humanitarian assistance.
When asked what was the American position on Ukraine’s request for security guarantees to help deter any future Russian assaults, Rubio simply said deterrence would be part of peace talks.
“There’s no way to have an enduring peace without the deterrence piece being a part of it,” he said, adding that any commercial minerals agreement between the United States and Ukraine would help enrich Ukraine, but was not a deterrent against Russian aggression.
Rubio added that European promises to provide security to Ukraine would be part of peace talks as well. He said it was unclear when those nations would become more involved in negotiations, though European countries have insisted they would be central players in a settlement, if one were to happen.
“I would imagine that in any negotiation, if we get there hopefully with the Russians, that they will raise the European sanctions that have been imposed upon them. So I think that the issue of European sanctions are going to be on the table, not to mention what happens with the frozen assets and the like,” he said.
Read also: U.S. sees no issues with monitoring ceasefire in Ukraine – Rubio
