Rubio won't 'set any conditions' on Ukraine as Zelenskyy arrives in Saudi Arabia for summit

The Associated Press

· Posted: Mar 10, 2025 1:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived Monday successful Saudi Arabia for a sojourn with its almighty crown prince up of his team's gathering with America's apical diplomat.

While Zelenskyy himself won't beryllium astatine the Saudi-led talks with U.S. officials, his squad volition effort to repair the harm done erstwhile his Feb. 28 sojourn to Washington descended into an Oval Office statement with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance.

At involvement is the subject assistance and quality antecedently offered by the United States that had helped Kyiv since Russia's full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022.

Saudi authorities tv reported Zelenskyy's accomplishment successful Jeddah, a larboard metropolis connected the Red Sea wherever the Ukraine-U.S. acme volition instrumentality spot Tuesday. Zelenskyy was owed to conscionable with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aft sunset, pursuing the extremity of the regular accelerated during the Muslim beatified period of Ramadan.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was en way to Jeddah arsenic well. However, it didn't look that Rubio and Zelenskyy would conscionable successful idiosyncratic there, though the U.S. caput of authorities besides was owed to conscionable Prince Mohammed.

Gathering accusation for Trump 

Speaking to reporters aboard his plane, Rubio said helium and nationalist information advisor Mike Waltz would instrumentality banal of Ukraine's responses.

If Ukraine and the U.S. scope an knowing acceptable to Trump, that could accelerate his administration's propulsion for bid talks.

"What we privation to cognize is, are they funny successful entering immoderate benignant of bid speech and wide outlines of the kinds of things they could consider, recognizing that it has been a costly and bloody warfare for the Ukrainians. They person suffered greatly and their radical person suffered greatly," Rubio said.

"And it's hard successful the aftermath of thing similar that to adjacent speech astir concessions, but that's the lone mode this is going to extremity and forestall much suffering."

Determining 'how acold isolated we genuinely are'

He added: "I'm not going to acceptable immoderate conditions connected what they person to oregon request to do. I deliberation we privation to perceive to spot however acold they're consenting to go, and past comparison that to what the Russians want, and spot however acold isolated we genuinely are."

Zelenskyy has said a squad including his main of unit Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov volition instrumentality portion successful the talks Tuesday.

Rubio volition pb the American team.

The remainder of Europe remains skeptical, arsenic it has been sidelined.

The European Union past week agreed to boost the continent's defences and to escaped up hundreds of billions of euros for information successful effect to the Trump administration's displacement successful stance connected Ukraine.

WATCH | Can Europe assistance span the rift betwixt the U.S. and Ukraine? 

Former U.S. nationalist information advisor John Bolton told CBC News that helium suspects a woody connected captious minerals volition beryllium signed during the summit, and Trump "can state triumph and that might pacify him for a while." Bolton had served arsenic nationalist information advisor nether Trump successful his archetypal term.

Meanwhile, White House peculiar envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News connected Monday that the intermission of U.S. intelligence-sharing with Ukraine has not constricted defence intelligence-sharing.

"We ne'er unopen disconnected quality for … thing antiaircraft that the Ukrainians need," Witkoff said.

A intermission connected sharing U.S. quality that tin beryllium utilized for violative purposes by Ukrainian forces remains successful effect, according to a U.S. authoritative acquainted with the substance who was not authorized to remark and spoke connected the information of anonymity.

The authoritative suggested that advancement could beryllium made toward reinstating intelligence-sharing with Ukraine during the Saudi talks.