US Secretary of State: Europe wants to prolong the Ukraine conflict for another year

According to RIA Novosti on March 1, in an interview with CNN after the meeting between the two US and Ukrainian leaders, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Europe is proposing to continue the conflict in Ukraine for another year in the hope of weakening Russia.

“I asked everyone, what is the European plan to end the war? I can tell you what one foreign minister told me. I won’t say who it was, but I can tell you one of them told me that the war would last another year until Russia would feel so exhausted that Moscow would ask for peace,” the US secretary of state said.

Another year of conflict would lead to more destruction and loss of life, Mr. Rubio added, and from the US perspective, such a plan is unrealistic.

The meeting between the US President and the Ukrainian President took place at the White House on February 28, but it ended up being a heated argument. According to Fox News, President Donald Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to leave the White House due to sharp disagreements on ending the conflict, and the rare earth metals deal fell apart.

Earlier, CBS News quoted high-ranking sources close to the US leader as saying that what happened in the White House raised questions about the suspension of aid to Ukraine. The source noted that after the controversy, Ukrainian officials tried their best to bring the White House back to discuss the agreement, but to no avail, as President Trump did not want to talk to Mr. Zelensky.