Rubio explains why Trump is choosing his words carefully when it comes to Putin and says Zelenskyy should apologize

US President Donald Trump is choosing the words carefully so as not to offend the Kremlin leader. This is because Trump does not want to harm the negotiation process on a possible end to the Russian-Ukrainian war.

This was stated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an interview with CNN. He also added that the White House is waiting for an apology from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the "fiasco" during the talks with Trump and that the US administration now "doubts" that the Ukrainian president truly wants peace.

Rubio explained the persistence that Trump demonstrates when it comes to Russian dictator Putin by the American president's alleged desire to end the war. Trump, according to the US Secretary of State, does not want to voice anything insulting about Putin because he believes that this hinders the negotiation process.

Rubio said, "Attacking Putin, no matter how anyone may feel about him personally, forcing the President into a position where you’re trying to goad him into attacking Putin, calling him names, maximalist demands about Russia having to pay for the reconstruction – all the sorts of things that you talk about in a negotiation."

"How are you going to get Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation to a table to discuss even the opportunity, whether there – even to explore whether there’s an opportunity for peace? You’re not going to do it by calling him names," the US Secretary of State said.

Rubio added that issues such as reconstruction are usually discussed in negotiations, but "when you start talking about that aggressively – and the President’s a deal maker, he’s made deals his entire life – you’re not going to get people to the table."

"And so you start to perceive that maybe Zelenskyy doesn’t want a peace deal. He says he does, but maybe he doesn’t. And that act of open undermining of efforts to bring about peace is deeply frustrating for everyone who’s been involved in communications with them leading up to today," the Secretary of State said.

Rubio also said that the US side "wasted time" in arranging a meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents.

"When Zelenskyy’s ready to make peace and he’s serious about peace, let him come back then, and that’s when we’ll re-engage with them," he emphasized.

As for whether Putin should be trusted, Rubio said that the White House would take a "trust but verify" approach. He reiterated that Trump "has been making deals his whole life" and that he "is not going to get suckered into some deal that’s not a real deal."

"And so the goal here is to get to a place – we have to explore whether peace is possible. I’ve said this repeatedly. I don’t know; I think it is based on what they’ve said so far. But we have to explore that," the US Secretary of State said.

He also criticized Europe's efforts to achieve a just peace.

"I can tell you what one foreign minister told me, and I’m not going to say who it was but I can tell you what one of them told me, and that is that the war goes on for another year and at that point Russia will feel so weakened that they’ll beg for peace. That’s another year of killing, another year of dying, another year of destruction, and by the way, not a very realistic plan in my point of view," Rubio emphasized.

He also demanded an apology from Zelenskyy for allegedly turning the meeting at the White House with US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance into a "fiasco."

To recap, Zelenskyy met with Trump at the White House on February 28. The meeting unexpectedly escalated into a heated argument between the two presidents. In particular, Zelenskyy's statement that "Putin won't give us peace, he has violated the ceasefire 25 times" and that Ukraine needs guarantees that Russia will not attack again after gathering its strength was the reason for the American president's anger and accusations against the head of Ukraine. Subsequently, there were even claims of disrespect, which allegedly lied in Zelenskyy's "rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders."

After that, the Ukrainian team left the White House. Trump said that Zelenskyy was not ready for negotiations and that he can come back when he is ready for peace. Instead, the Ukrainian president spoke with Macron and Rutte after the meeting with Trump, and then gave an interview to Fox News, in which he emphasized the crucial role of the United States in Ukraine's ability to withstand and explained why security guarantees are important.

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