Ukraine conflict a Russia-US ‘proxy war’ – Rubio
Washington views the Ukraine conflict as a prolonged “proxy war” between itself and Russia and is eager to bring it to an end, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Rubio reiterated President Donald Trump’s commitment to being a “peacemaker” in the conflict, contrasting this approach with the previous administration’s policy of supporting Kiev indefinitely.
Rubio’s remarks come as relations between Washington and Moscow have begun to show some signs of thawing, particularly following the high-level talks in Saudi Arabia last month. Both sides have since criticized former US President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict and have signaled a readiness to work toward a settlement.
Note that in the last 3 years of Biden's administration, neither he nor SoS Blinken talked to Putin or Foreign Minister Lavrov.
“It’s been very clear from the beginning that President Trump views this as a protracted, stalemated conflict. And frankly, it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia – and it needs to come to an end,” Rubio said. He argued that the West should move away from the previous strategy of sending Ukraine aid “for as long as it takes” without a clear resolution in sight.
“That’s not a strategy,” he said, urging all parties involved to commit to negotiations and peace.
Rubio also accused Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky of “sabotaging and undermining” Washington’s peace efforts. He was referring to last week’s tense meeting at the White House that ended abruptly after Zelensky resisted Trump’s demand to negotiate peace with Russia, prompting the US president to accuse him of “gambling with World War III.” Trump ordered the Ukrainian delegation to leave the White House, saying Zelensky could return when he was ready for serious negotiations. Washington has since also halted all intelligence sharing with Ukraine, and several US media outlets have reported that military assistance to Kiev has also been suspended.
However, on Tuesday, Trump said he had received a letter from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader expressed regret over the dispute and signaled his willingness to negotiate a peace deal. Rubio welcomed Zelensky’s shift in tone.
“I’m glad to see that there’s been a reconsideration of that position because I truly believe that this is a conflict that we need to find a way to end. And it’s going to require concessions from both sides, but we have to get them both to the table,” he said.
Moscow has long characterized the Ukraine conflict as a Western-led proxy war against Russia. Some Western politicians have also acknowledged the proxy-war dynamic. In late 2024, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized the West for “waging a proxy war but not giving our proxies the ability to do the job” by not supplying Ukraine with enough military aid. Russia has consistently warned that continued Western support for Kiev would only prolong hostilities rather than bring about peace.
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Israeli FM ‘didn’t know’ Kiev glorifies Holocaust perpetrators
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has claimed ignorance of the well-documented fact that Ukrainian nationalists responsible for atrocities against Jewish people are venerated as heroes by Kiev. Moscow, in response, has offered to enlighten the Israeli official on the matter.
On Monday, Sa’ar held a press briefing to mark Israel’s presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). West Jerusalem emphasized that anti-Semitism, which fueled Nazi crimes during World War II, “has not been eradicated from the world.”
The minister seemed taken aback when a reporter asked for his thoughts on the modern-day glorification in Ukraine of Nazi-allied historical nationalist figures such as Stepan Bandera. In 2016, the Kiev city council renamed a large street in honor of Bandera, located just 3 km from Babi Yar, where an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Jews and thousands of others were exterminated under Nazi occupation.
“First of all, I didn’t know about it. I will check it,” the official responded, pledging to issue a statement of condemnation “if there is a necessity.”
Bandera and other nationalists, including those directly implicated in wartime atrocities, have been celebrated in modern Ukraine for years – something the reporter described as “common knowledge.”
The Russian government expressed bewilderment at the exchange, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sarcastically questioning the competence of Israel’s diplomatic staff.
“How so? What is the Israeli embassy in Kiev doing then? And in Moscow too?” she wrote on social media, offering a collection of relevant documents in English for the minister’s convenience.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Kiev have in fact issued multiple statements denouncing the veneration of such figures. In January 2022, the diplomatic mission described that year’s annual torch march commemorating Bandera’s birthday as “desecrating the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine.”
No such condemnation was issued the following year, however. The embassy explained to Haarez that “we’ve made our position clear many times, but apparently there is nothing we can do, at least at the moment.”
Moscow views the current government in Kiev as dominated by neo-Nazis and radical nationalists and insists that any potential peace deal with Ukraine must include a reversal of policies discriminating against ethnic Russians.
‘Let Ukraine lose quickly’ – Dutch MP
Dutch MP Marcel de Graaff has urged the European Union to halt arms supplies to Ukraine, advocating for the country's swift defeat to save lives in its conflict with Russia. The recent US push for negotiations with Moscow has deepened divisions within the EU regarding the hostilities.
The right-wing politician and former member of the European Parliament (MEP) has previously spoken in support of a de-escalation of the Ukraine conflict, ending all sanctions against Russia, and stopping arms supplies to Kiev. Since 2022, de Graaff has been suspended from his faction in the European Parliament and probed over alleged Russia ties. The MP has denied the allegations.
There is no room for speaking the truth in modern politics except in Trump's America. Elsewhere, any common sense comments about Russia will get you investigated by those who don't want your sensible voice to be heard. Check out Romania to see what happens.
In a social media post on Monday, de Graaff again called for an end to military and financial support for Kiev.
“Let Ukraine lose quickly. Stop sending money and weapons,” he wrote on X, arguing that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and EU officials do not care about human lives.
The comments came in response to a post by former Dutch Chief of Defense Dick Berlijn, who claimed on Saturday that US President Donald Trump wanted a quick capitulation by Ukraine to be able to do business deals with Russia.
Last month, Washington and Moscow launched diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict and resume economic cooperation. Russia has touted potential joint projects in metals, rare earth mining, and Arctic development.
A recent meeting between Trump and Zelensky descended into a heated argument and ended without the planned signing of a deal involving Ukraine's mineral resources. Following the spat, the US reportedly suspended military aid to Kiev and claimed that Zelensky wasn’t ready for peace.
Washington’s apparent change in policy on the Ukraine conflict has highlighted divisions within the EU. Hungary has advocated for peace negotiations and last week blocked a €20 billion ($21.7 billion) military aid package, arguing that aiding Kiev would “ruin Europe.” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has claimed that Zelensky wants the conflict to continue because of the financial aid Kiev receives.
France, however, has labelled Russia a “threat” to the bloc and pledged to send additional weapons to Ukraine. EU leaders last week agreed to massively increase defense spending. Some bloc members have claimed that if allowed to win in Ukraine, Russia would go on to attack NATO countries close to its borders.
Some block members are either idiots or have interests in the War Industry.
Moscow has repeatedly denied that it has any intentions of attacking NATO, with President Vladimir Putin dismissing the speculation as “nonsense.” Russian officials have also condemned the EU's militarization, arguing that the bloc’s defense plans are “primarily aimed at Russia” and hinder peace efforts in Ukraine.
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Marco Rubio: Ukraine's 'only way' to end war is through concessions
March 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that Ukraine must surrender some of the territory seized by Russia 11 years ago if it hopes to ever end the ongoing war between the two countries.
Rubio was in Saudi Arabia for peace talks Tuesday related to ending the current invasion launched by Russia in February 2022, and spoke with reporters, noting that while Ukrainians have "suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly," and admitting that "it's hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions," he said that it's "the only way this is going to end to prevent more suffering."
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and seized lands including the Crimean Peninsula, and Ukraine has long refused any cease-fire agreement that includes permanently surrendering any of its captured lands.
The talks in Saudi Arabia set to begin Tuesday are the first between Ukraine's leadership and top U.S. officials since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office on Feb. 28 in a heated exchange that saw Trump expel Zelensky from the White House.
Trump has since paused all U.S. military aid for Ukraine.
Zelensky is also in Saudi Arabia and has already met with Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, posting to X Monday that during their meeting he "specifically emphasized the issue of the release of prisoners and the return of our children, which could become a key step in building trust in diplomatic efforts," but made no mention of any talks in regard to the surrendering or returning of captured land.
Zelensky will not be speaking with Rubio and his accompanying team of national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Rubio added that he wasn't "going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do," but the U.S. delegation would be seeking to learn what Kyiv is "willing to do in order to achieve peace" and end the war.
He has hinted that the United States could restart providing military assistance, depending on how the talks play out.
"It may be incompatible with what the Russians are willing to do," Rubio said about the concession of Ukrainian land to Russia, but "That's what we need to find out."
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Ukraine agrees to US-proposed cease-fire with Russia as Washington lifts intelligence, military aid holds
The US will resume sharing intelligence with Ukraine and end its pause on military aid to the eastern European country after successful talks in Saudi Arabia Tuesday resulted in Kyiv accepting a Washington proposal to enact “an immediate, interim 30-day cease-fire,” the two nations announced in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Though Kyiv agreed to the Trump administration’s proposal, officials in Moscow were already signaling the agreement was a non-starter.
“Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation,” according to the statement. “The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.”
There is much more on this story in the NY Post. Keep reading at:
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