PARIS -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of lying when he suggested this week that the United States was conditioning security guarantees for Kyiv with the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donbas.
The dispute over Zelenskyy's comment could fuel tension between Washington and Kyiv at a time when US-brokered talks to end Russia's war against Ukraine are on hold and the US-Israeli war with Iran is drawing attention away from the worst conflict in Europe since 1945.
Ukraine wants strong US-backed security guarantees as part of any peace deal, to protect it from further Russian aggression. Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw from the parts of the Donbas, a swath of eastern Ukraine, that Moscow's forces have been unable to seize.
"The Americans are prepared to finalize these [security] guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from [the] Donbas," Zelenskyy told the Reuters news agency in an interview on March 25.
"That's a lie… that's not what he was told," Rubio said on March 27, responding to a question from an RFE/RL correspondent before he departed France following a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers.
"I saw him say that, and it's unfortunate he would say that, because he knows that's not true," Rubio said, suggesting the US position was procedural rather than coercive.
"Security guarantees are not going to kick in until there’s an end to a war… otherwise you're injecting yourself into the war," he said.
"We've told the Ukrainian side what the Russians are insisting on," Rubio added. "We're not advocating for it…it's their choice to make."
US President Donald Trump has sought to end the war in Ukraine since he took office in January 2025, but Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on crucial issues, including control over Ukrainian territory in the Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with Russia showing no readiness for compromise.
Rubio reiterated that Washington remains committed to ending Russia's war against Ukraine but announced no new initiatives.
"We always want to see the end of that war…. We're ready to play whatever constructive role we can," he said.
In addition to occupying Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, Russia baselessly claims Donetsk, Luhansk, and two other regions in mainland Ukraine as its own. Zelenskyy said a withdrawal would jeopardize the security of Ukraine and Europe by handing strong Ukrainian defensive positions to Russia.
"I would very much like the American side to understand that the eastern part of our country is part of our security guarantees," Reuters quoted him as saying.
In his remarks on March 27, Rubio also suggested that no assistance to Ukraine has yet been diverted due to the US-Israeli war with Iran.
"Nothing yet has been diverted, but it could," Rubio said.
"If we need something for America and it's American, we're going to keep it for America first," he said.
Rubio said there had not yet been any change in Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a NATO initiative in which European countries purchase weapons for Ukraine from the United States.
