Rubio says US still ready for Ukraine peace talks with Russia

The U.S. administration is ready to hold meetings with Russian officials if such contacts can contribute to resolving the conflict in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters.

“We still want to meet with the Russian side,” Rubio said, Caliber.Az reports via Russian media.

“I had a productive phone conversation with Foreign Minister [Sergey] Lavrov. And we’ll continue [our work] based on that,” the Secretary of State added.

“We will always be interested in contacts if there is an opportunity to achieve peace,” Rubio stressed, referring to efforts toward a settlement in Ukraine.

Speaking about the U.S. sanctions announced earlier on October 22 against Lukoil and Rosneft, Rubio noted: “I think the president [Donald Trump] has repeatedly said over the past few months that at some point he would have to do something if there was no progress toward peace agreements. Today, he decided to act.”

By Khagan Isayev