Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to Saudi Arabia today to meet with Ukrainian officials.
The goal is to “advance the President’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Trump told reporters yesterday that he expects “pretty good results” out of Rubio’s meetings in Saudi Arabia, and expressed optimism that Ukraine will sign a minerals deal agreement with the United States.
The president maintained his belief that Ukrainian leadership has not sufficiently expressed a desire to end the war, but signaled that would change “over the next two or three days.”
“We want to do anything we can to get Ukraine to be serious about getting something done,” Trump said.
Rubio last month traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he initiated efforts to negotiate an end to the war directly with Russian officials, excluding at the time Ukrainian and European allies from participating in the talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismay at not being included in the negotiations at the time incited Trump’s fury. That frustration, paired with Zelenskyy’s demand that concrete security guarantees be included in any U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement, contributed to an Oval Office clash between the two leaders last month that has since resulted in Trump suspending military aid and intel sharing with Ukraine.