US Will Know in Weeks if Putin Is Really Serious About Peace, Says Rubio

The White House would know within weeks whether Russia was serious about pursuing peace with Ukraine, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said yesterday, warning that Donald Trump was not "going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations".

- Pjotr Sauer

"We're testing to see if the Russians are interested in peace. Their actions - not their words, their actions - will determine whether they're serious or not, and we intend to find that out sooner rather than later," Rubio told journalists in Brussels after talks with Nato allies.

Russia's negotiators and its president, Vladimir Putin, would have to decide "whether they're serious about peace or not. If it's a delay tactic, the president's not interested in that. If this is dragging things out, president Trump's not going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations."

He added: "We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious."