United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly fired back at EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas during a G7 meeting on Friday, after she asked why the US is “not increasing pressure” on Russia, sources told. axios.
Sources reportedly said that during a discussion on the Ukraine war, Kallas criticized the US for not increasing pressure on Moscow.
She noted that Rubio had said at the same forum a year earlier that if Russia hampered the US’ efforts to end the war, the US would run out of patience and take more steps against the Kremlin.
“A year has passed and Russia hasn’t moved,” Kallas told Rubio, according to axios‘ sources. “When is your patience going to run out?,” she asked.
Rubio “retorted sharply” to Kallas’ remarks and “fired back, raising his voice”: “We are doing the best we can to end the war. If you think you can do it better, go ahead. We will step aside.”
According to axiosRubio said the US was trying to talk to both sides, but was only helping one side, Ukraine, with weapons, intelligence and other support.
After that purported heated exchange, several European ministers in the room interjected to say they still wanted the US to pursue Russia-Ukraine diplomacy, one source said.
Two sources also told axios that at the end of the meeting, Rubio and Kallas had a “short pull-aside to try and cool down things.”
Meanwhile, a State Department official was quoted as saying, “It was a frank exchange of views. This is what diplomacy is for.”
Rubio denies tensions in G7
Rubio denied there had been any tensions or criticism.
“These meetings are often about thanking America for the role we played… and appreciation for the mediating role we’ve tried to play in this war between Russia and Ukraine,” Rubio said.
“So I don’t know. I mean, you guys ask me these questions, like if I go into these meetings and these people are angry. No one there screams or raises their voices or says anything negative. And if they did, I would remind them that – I don’t need to, but I would remind them of the role America has played over the last year has been a very productive role and very helpful to them,” he said.
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On Friday, Marco Rubio also rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s assertion that the Trump administration is demanding Kyiv hand over its eastern Donbas region to Russia to receive American security guarantees in any ceasefire plan.
Speaking to reporters following a Group of Seven meeting in France, Rubio disputed Zelenskyy’s recent comments and said the US has made no such stipulation in its talks with Ukraine.
“That’s a lie,” Rubio said. “And I saw him say that. And it’s unfortunate he would say that because he knows that’s not true and that’s not what he was told.”
In an interview published this week, Zelenskyy told reuters the US was making its offer of security guarantees for Ukraine contingent on the ceding of the Donbas region, the industrial heartland long coveted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow’s forces occupy the bulk of the region, but have not seized a strip of land that is among the most heavily fortified parts of the front line.
Zelenskyy had claimed that with the US focused on its war against Iran, President Donald Trump is looking to bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
(With inputs from Associated Press, Axios)
