Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s marathon meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has not produced a breakthrough, and U.S. officials are acknowledging the bleak impasse.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced a sense of powerlessness regarding the conflict in an interview with Sean Hannity on Tuesday, stating that the administration has been trying for months to quell the Eastern European conflict but ultimately has no way of forcing the issue.
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“We have tried to bring both sides together and see what proposals we could come up with that both sides could live with. We’re going to do everything we can to make it work,” he continued. “We’re still not close enough. But that could change. I hope it changes.”
Rubio applauded the Ukrainians for achieving “tremendous things because of their bravery, their courage, and how hard they have fought” and emphasized the U.S.’s commitment to “protect Ukraine’s long-standing and long-term sovereignty and independence so that they don’t become a puppet state.”
His outlook was far from optimistic, however, as he demurred when asked how confident he was in the current round of negotiations.
“It’s hard to tell about confidence level on it, because ultimately the decisions have to be made, in the case of Russia, by Putin alone, not his advisers,” the secretary of state said. “Only Putin can end this war on the Russian side.”
If Putin is indeed the only man capable of stopping the war, prospects do not look promising.
Yury Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to the Russian president, said immediately following the nearly five-hour meeting with Witkoff and Kushner that “a compromise solution hasn’t been found yet.”
“Some of the ideas the Americans proposed look more or less acceptable, though they still need to be discussed,” Ushakov told reporters. “Some of the wording they suggested doesn’t work for us.”
The White House does not seem to have a workaround to Putin’s obstinacy, and Rubio told Hannity that all other parties seeking to end the conflict are hopeless.
“And at the end of the day, it’s not up to us. It’s not our war. We’re not fighting it; there aren’t American soldiers. It’s on another continent. We are engaged because we’re the only ones that can,” he said. “European countries — there’s no one else in the world that can do this. The Chinese can’t do it. The only leader in the world that can talk to both sides and make a deal, if a deal is possible, is President [Donald] Trump.”
This sentiment was echoed by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who said on Wednesday that the White House is the only party capable of securing a deal.
“It’s up to the Americans first to break the deadlock, and then others will follow,” Rutte told reporters. “There is only one person in all the world who was able to break the deadlock when it comes to war: President Donald J. Trump.”
Ushakov, in his Tuesday remarks, teased the idea of yet another meeting between Trump and Putin: “As for a possible meeting at the presidential level, that will depend on the progress we’re able to make through the persistent work carried out by our aides and representatives.”
The prospect of another bilateral talk between the leaders is unlikely to foster enthusiasm among Ukraine’s supporters. Their previous conference in Anchorage, Alaska, ultimately led to no breakthroughs and left peace-seekers frustrated — including Trump himself.
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“I’m very disappointed, because Vladimir and I had a very good relationship,” the president said following the Alaska summit. “I don’t know why he continues with this war.”
Trump has at various other points accused Putin of throwing “bulls***” at the U.S. diplomatic team and “tapping [him] along” with empty gestures.