Rubio denies US asked Ukraine to cede Donbas for security guarantees

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday 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 ...

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