Russia is running low on time to take action on the peace talks with Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Friday.
Following two days of meetings with NATO ministers in Brussels, Rubio said the U.S. had had enough of “talks about talks,” and urged the Russians to stop trying to delay the negotiations. He also indicated that the Russians may face further American sanctions.
“We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not,” Rubio told reporters, according to The New York Times.
Rubio said that Members of Congress are putting together fresh sanctions that the administration won’t be able to stop without signs that the process is moving forward.
President Donald Trump vowed while he was campaigning for the White House that he would end the war in Ukraine in his first day in office.
Rubio’s comments indicate that the Trump administration may finally be growing suspicious that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been negotiating in good faith. Observers note that Putin is likely trying to buy time to push ahead on the battlefield.
But there are also significant differences between Europe and the U.S. on Ukraine, Trump’s trade war, and Greenland.
Rubio also pushed NATO members to increase military spending to 5 percent of their Gross Domestic Product, which would surpass what the U.S. spends on its own armed forces.
However, when speaking to reporters, the secretary softened his remarks on military spending, saying that NATO members have to be on “a path of getting up to 5 percent at some point.”
In another hot-button issue, Rubio defended Trump’s startling, wide-ranging tariffs even as they threaten Europe’s economy.
After a meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the State Department said in a summary that the meeting was a “reaffirmation” of the relationship between the two countries. The summary didn’t mention Greenland, which Trump has publicly stated should become part of the U.S. Greenland is a semiautonomous Arctic territory of Denmark.
Rasmusson took to X to say that he had an “honest and direct meeting” with Rubio.
“I made it crystal clear that claims and statements about annexing Greenland are not only unacceptable and disrespectful. They amount to a violation of international law,” said Rasmussen.
Rubio responded to those remarks on Friday, noting that a significant portion of Greenlanders want to achieve independence from Denmark.
“We didn’t give them that idea,” said Rubio. “They’ve been talking about that for a long time.”
There’s nothing to suggest, however, that any considerable part of Greenlanders want to become part of the U.S.
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested that a peace deal in Ukraine could lead to a refreshed relationship between the U.S. and Russia. However, the Russians have only agreed to a partial ceasefire, such as a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure that neither Russia nor Ukraine has adhered to.
European leaders are concerned that Trump may put Putin’s demands first in any peace negotiation, and they’re pushing for Ukraine to be protected.
Military leaders from France and Britain visited Kyiv on Friday to discuss a possible deployment of troops to ensure that any ceasefire is followed, such as air defenses and a presence on land and at sea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters.
He didn’t name other countries also in talks to provide peacekeepers. The Russians, however, have been clear that they wouldn’t accept any NATO troops in Ukraine.
