After three years of silence, the United States held direct talks with Russia, which allowed it to better understand its position, the Secretary of State explained.
The United States hopes that Russia and Ukraine will be able to reach an agreement as early as this week, but this deadline is not final, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Free Press.
"I don't know about the end of the week. I hope we can come to something quickly. And I hope, as always, that we can do something because this is a terrible war and it has to end because there is no military solution," Rubio said.
He added that neither Russia nor Ukraine is capable of fully realizing their military goals.
"Russia can't just take over all of Ukraine. And Ukraine can't push them back to where they were before 2014," the Secretary of State commented on the situation on the battlefield.
According to him, after three years of silence, the United States held direct talks with Russia, which allowed it to better understand its position.
"I would say that we are involved in understanding what Russia's position is. We understand it better now," Rubio said.
At the same time, he added that it is necessary to clearly understand Ukraine's position. However, he acknowledged that the parties may end up being too far apart.
"Then we may come to the conclusion that they are so far apart that peace is now impossible," he said.
At the same time, the Secretary of State assured that the United States will continue to make efforts to achieve a ceasefire, because, according to him, the American government has already spent "a lot of time and effort at the highest levels of government."
At the same time, he acknowledged that if there is no progress, the US may change its focus.
"If at some point we realize that we are too far apart and that we are not moving forward enough, we may have to move on to other priorities because there are a lot of important things happening in the world," Rubio stressed.
The Secretary of State emphasized that the United States is not the party that started the war, but is trying to help end it. According to him, the final decision does not depend on Washington.