Rubio: Trump will "know right time and place" to impose sanctions on Russia
The administration of US President Donald Trump believes that now is not the time for new sanctions against Russia.
This was stated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an interview with Politico, Censor.NET reports.
According to Rubio, the White House fears that tougher sanctions will disrupt the possibility of negotiating a ceasefire with Moscow.
"If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the ceasefire and then who’s talking to them?," he explained.
According to him, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders hope to persuade Trump to change his position during the NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday.
Rubio emphasized that Trump will "know the right time and place" to impose economic measures. According to him, work is currently underway with the Congress to provide the US President with sufficient flexibility in this matter.
At the same time, he acknowledged that if sanctions were to be imposed, it would mean that the "window for talking" with Russia would likely close.
Commenting on the situation on the frontline, Rubio noted that Moscow is trying to achieve its goals through military means.
"Our sense of it is that the Russians are going to try to achieve in the battlefield what they’ve demanded in the negotiating table, which is certain territories [maintain] their administrative lines and the like. We think it’s going to be a lot harder for them to achieve that than they think it’s going to be," he added.
