 "US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gestures as he speaks during an end-of-year press conference in the State Department Press Briefing Room in Washington, DC on December 19, 2025.- AFP")
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that efforts to end the war in Ukraine are not about imposing a deal on anybody, adding that progress has been made but much work remains as Ukrainian negotiators prepare for a new round of talks with US officials.
Rubio’s end-of-year appearance coincides with a series of high-level meetings in Miami on Friday and Saturday focused on Gaza and the Russia–Ukraine war, following a turbulent year for US foreign policy.
In addition to his primary duties, Rubio has taken on the role of national security adviser and has positioned himself as a firm advocate of President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
He has backed policies ranging from visa cancellations and tighter immigration and deportation measures to sweeping changes in foreign aid and a restructuring of the State Department’s bureaucracy.
The head of Kyiv’s delegation, Rustem Umerov, who is in the United States for the talks, also said on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv’s European partners would be involved.
“We are constructively minded. We have already held preliminary consultations with our European colleagues and are preparing for further discussions with the American side,” Umerov said. “… Ukraine’s security must be guaranteed reliably and in the long term.”
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View AllU.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing to bring an end to nearly four years of the war.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, held talks in Berlin with Ukrainian and European officials earlier this week.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine and the United States had agreed on several documents, including a 20-point peace framework, and security guarantees and a reconstruction plan for Ukraine. But he said that no aligned final proposals had been agreed, adding that the territorial issues remained unresolved.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered no compromise on Friday on his terms for ending the war in Ukraine, saying the onus was on Ukraine and Europe to make the next move.
Witkoff and Kushner also plan to meet a Russian delegation in Miami this weekend, a White House official said.
With inputs from agencies