Trump hoping to achieve halt to Ukraine fighting in Putin talks, Rubio says

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump will go into talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug 15 hoping to achieve a halt to the fighting in Ukraine, but a comprehensive solution to the war will take longer, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

“To achieve a peace, I think we all recognise that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees. There’ll have to be some conversation about... territorial disputes and claims, and what they’re fighting over,” Mr Rubio told reporters at the State Department on Aug 14.

“All these things will be part of a comprehensive thing. But I think the president’s hope is to achieve some stoppage of fighting so that those conversations can happen.”

Mr Rubio said that the longer wars go on, the harder they are to end.

“And even as I speak... there are changes happening in the battlefield which have an impact on what one side views as leverage or the other. So that’s the reality of ongoing fighting, which is why a ceasefire is so critical,” he said.

“But we’ll see what’s possible tomorrow. Let’s see how the talks go. And we’re hopeful. We want there to be a peace. We’re going to do everything we can to achieve one, but ultimately it’ll be up to Ukraine and Russia to agree to one.”

Mr Rubio said preparations for the meeting were going “very fast,” as it had been put together very quickly.

He said he believed Mr Trump had spoken by phone to Putin four times and “felt it was important to now speak to him in person and look him in the eye and figure out what was possible and what isn’t”.

“He sees an opportunity to talk about achieving peace. He’s going to pursue it, and we’ll know tomorrow at some point, as the president said, probably very early in that meeting, whether something is possible or not. We hope it is.” REUTERS