United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly took a shot at EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas during Friday’s G7 meeting after she asked why the U.S. wasn’t “upping the pressure” on Russia, sources told Axios.
The sources reportedly said that during a discussion about the war in Ukraine, Kallas criticized the US for not increasing pressure on Moscow.
She noted that Rubio had said at the same forum a year earlier that if Russia hampered US efforts to end the war, the US would run out of patience and take further action against the Kremlin.
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“It’s been a year and Russia hasn’t moved,” Kallas told Rubio, according to Axios’ sources. “When will you run out of patience?” she asked.
Rubio “sharply countered” Kallas’ remarks, “firing back, raising his voice”: “We’re doing what we can to end the war. If you think you can do better, go for it. We’re going to back down.”
According to Axios, Rubio said the US is trying to talk to both sides but is only helping one side, Ukraine, with weapons, intelligence and other support.
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After that supposedly heated exchange, several European ministers in the room said they still wanted the U.S. to continue Russia-Ukraine diplomacy, one source said.
Two sources also told Axios that at the end of the meeting, Rubio and Kallas had “a short break to try to cool things down.”
Meanwhile, a State Department official was quoted as saying: “It was a frank exchange. That’s what diplomacy is for.”
Rubio denies G7 tensions
Rubio denied there was any tension or criticism.
“These meetings are often about thanking America for the role that we’ve played … and about appreciating the mediating role that we’ve tried to play in this war between Russia and Ukraine,” Rubio said.
“Well, I don’t know. I mean, you’re asking me these questions, like when I go to these meetings and these people are upset. Nobody’s yelling or raising their voice or saying anything negative. And if they were, I would remind them — I don’t need to, but I would remind them of the role that America has played over the last year, which has been very productive and very helpful to them,” he said.
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Marco Rubio also rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim on Friday that the Trump administration is demanding that Kiev hand over its eastern Donbas region to Russia in order to receive American security guarantees in any ceasefire plan.
Speaking to reporters after the Group of Seven meeting in France, Rubio disputed Zelenskyy’s recent comments, saying the U.S. had done no such thing in its talks with Ukraine.
“That’s a lie,” Rubio said. “And I saw him say that. And it’s unfortunate that he said that because he knows it’s not true and he wasn’t told.”
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In an interview published this week, Zelenskyy told Reuters that the US was making the offer of security guarantees to Ukraine conditional on ceding the Donbass region, an industrial heartland long coveted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow’s forces occupy most of the region but have not seized a strip of land that is among the most heavily fortified parts of the front line.
Zelenskyy claimed that while the US is focused on the war against Iran, President Donald Trump is trying to end the conflict in Ukraine.
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(With inputs from Associated Press, Axios)
