The United States expects Russia to name within days broad outlines for a cease-fire with Ukraine to assess whether Moscow is serious about peace, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
“At some point here fairly soon – maybe in a number of days, maybe this week hopefully – the Russian side is going to present the terms that they would want to see,” Rubio told a Senate hearing.
Rubio said the timeline came from President Donald Trump’s call Monday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and his own conversation over the weekend with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The Russians will offer “just broad terms that would allow us to move towards a ceasefire, and that ceasefire would then allow us to enter into detailed negotiations to bring about an end of the conflict,” Rubio said.
“We are hoping that will happen. We believe that the term sheet that the Russians produce will tell us a lot about their true intentions,” he said.
“If it’s a term sheet that’s realistic and you can work off of it, that’s one thing. If it makes demands that we know are unrealistic, I think that will be indicative.”
Trump said after his call Monday with Putin that Russia was ready to start talks “immediately.” Putin was more circumspect and said Moscow would propose “a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement defining a range of positions.”
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