Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov

SECRETARY RUBIO: (In progress) the time.  I think we both are.  But I just wanted to update you.  We had another very productive session building off Geneva, building off the events of this week.  As I told you earlier this morning, our goal here is to end the war, but it’s more than just to end the war.  We don’t just want to end the war; we also want to help Ukraine be safe forever so never again will they face another invasion, and equally important, we want them to enter an age of true prosperity.  We want the Ukrainian people to emerge from this war not just to rebuild their country, but to build it back in a way that’ll be stronger and more prosperous than it’s ever been. 

And so this is comprehensive what we’re working on here today.  It’s not just about the terms that ends fighting; it’s about also the terms that set up Ukraine for long-term prosperity.  I thought we started laying the groundwork for that most certainly in Geneva.  I think we continued that work in our communications throughout the week.  I think we’ve built on that again today, but there’s more work to be done.  This is delicate, it’s complicated, there are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here that’ll have to be a part of the equation – and that’ll continue later this week when Mr. Witkoff travels to Moscow, although we’ve also been in touch in varying degrees with the Russian side.  We have a pretty good understanding of their views as well. 

So much work remains, but today was again a very productive and useful session where I think additional progress was made, and we continue to be realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic particularly given the fact that, as we’ve made progress, I think there is a shared vision here that this is not just about ending the war, which is very important; it is about securing Ukraine’s future, a future that we hope will be more prosperous than it’s ever been.

SECRETARY UMEROV:  Yeah.  Once again, we are grateful to American people, American leadership, and the great team with the State Secretary, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner for their tremendous work with us.  Our objective is a prosperous, strong Ukraine.  We were discussing about the future of Ukraine.  We discussed all the important matters that are important for Ukraine, for Ukrainian people, and U.S. was super supportive.  We worked – we already had a successful meeting in Geneva, and today we continued this success.

So at the moment this meeting was productive and successful.  On the later stages, hopefully, we’ll keep you updated.  Thank you.

SECRETARY RUBIO:  Okay.  Thank you very much.