ANTALYA: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday (May 15) the only way a breakthrough will happen in the efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine would be through direct talks between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Moscow sent a second-tier team to talks in Türkiye.
Rubio, who spoke to reporters in Antalya, said he would travel to Istanbul for meetings on Friday with Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and a Ukrainian delegation, but said he did not have high expectations for the talks.
“I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough here until the president (Trump) and President Putin interact directly on this topic,” Rubio said, echoing earlier comments from Trump.
The top US diplomat described the current state of the talks to end the war as a “logjam”, and said Trump was the only person who can break it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had traveled to Türkiye after Putin proposed talks there, before the Russian president decided against traveling to the talks himself.
Putin instead dispatched a second-tier team of aides and deputy ministers to Istanbul.
