After securing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s support for a 30-day truce in the war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio came out of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, saying the geopolitical ball was now in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s court.
Steve Witkoff, special envoy and top Trump negotiator with Russia, was reportedly planning a meeting with Putin as soon as this week. Senate Republicans expressed doubt Wednesday that Russia would back the ceasefire and warned that Putin was not an honest broker.
“I am extremely skeptical that Russia will accept the ceasefire, and I am very doubtful they want to end this war. Zelensky has passed the test of wanting peace. It is now up to Putin to show his cards,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote in a post on the social platform X.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) shared a similar skepticism.
“I personally am skeptical, because [Putin’s] ideologically driven of wanting to restore the Russian empire, and he’s shown that he doesn’t respect any agreements,” Cornyn said.
Trump signaled Wednesday that he could exert pressure on Putin if Russia holds back from joining a ceasefire agreement.
“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia, I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace,” he said, echoing past threats to tariff and isolate Moscow economically.
Putin is likely to assert his demands in the deal, dragging out the process toward a ceasefire, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
“What we want to do is have the best possible negotiating position for Ukraine, because we know we can’t trust Russia,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“We’ve seen that. What we need is to hold Vladimir Putin accountable for what he’s done.”
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
