Russia and Ukraine Should Focus on Peace Talks, U.S. Says

Ukraine and Russia should focus on ending the war between them, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during his visit to Uzbekistan on Monday.

"We see nothing good coming from this war," Rubio said. "We see a lot of downside to it, including the very real risk of escalation and spread of this thing... into another country because of a failed sabotage attack, because of drones that are hit with electronic warfare and they wander into a neighboring country."

Rubio landed in Samarkand on Sunday night to meet top officials of the C5+1 grouping, which brings together the United States and the post-Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted C5 leaders at the White House last November.

Rubio on Monday also appeared to confirm reports that the United States, Russia and China are in talks to hold a trilateral summit of leaders to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. According to those reports, the floated summit would exclude Ukraine.

"There's been talks of a meeting. I don't know whether it's been finalized, but the president has been clear. He'd like the war in Ukraine and Russia to end," he said.

Trump has so far failed to broker an end to the war in Ukraine despite a frenzy of U.S. diplomatic efforts since he returned to the White House in January 2025. While Washington has been a strong backer of Kyiv over the years, Trump has grown increasingly critical of Ukraine and has gone so far as to suggest that President Volodymyr Zelensky should step down from office.

On Sunday, Trump slammed Zelensky for not signing a peace deal with Russia earlier.

"He doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did," the president wrote on Truth Social. "He could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now. His country is in shambles."

Reuters contributed reporting.

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