Excerpt:
“QUESTION: Are you expecting any goodwill gestures from Russia? Do you have a deadline in mind for when you’re hoping for them to reciprocate on that – those two things?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, on – we’re going to take the offer to them. We’re going to tell them this is what’s on the table, Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking, and now it’ll be up to them to say yes or no. I hope they’re going to say yes. And if they do, then I think we made great progress. If they say no, then we’ll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here. But the President has been abundantly clear he wants the shooting to stop, he wants the warfare to stop, he wants the dying and the suffering to stop, and he believes – and rightfully so – that the only way to end this war is to negotiate an end to it. And we think that it’s always easier to negotiate an end to the war when people aren’t shooting at each other. That’s how the President believes. That’s what we hope to achieve. The Ukrainians today have expressed their willingness and readiness to do so immediately. We hope the Russians’ answer to that will also be yes.”
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