During a State Department press briefing, Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about Secretary of State Marco Rubio's stance on Crimea amidst negotiations to secure an end to fighting between Ukraine and Russia.
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00:00I want to raise the question of Crimea because the U.S. position, as was outlined by Vice
00:09President Vance, excuse me, indicates that the U.S. proposal does indicate that Russia would
00:17retain sovereignty over Crimea and other territories. It was just a few years ago that
00:24former Senator Rubio co-sponsored legislation that would prevent Russia from ever having
00:33sovereignty over Crimea because of its origins. Can you explain what has changed that has made
00:43the Secretary think that this is a balanced offer and a proposal that Mr. Zelensky and Ukraine should
00:51accept? I've said before, I'll say again, even to you, that we can't negotiate this. It's certainly
00:58not going to be negotiated in this room. But now it's on the record from the Vice President when in
01:03India he... Well, he's the Vice President and making a statement. It's not my job, nor will I parse his
01:10words or assign a meaning to them. But I do know, I think as we all know, negotiations continue. There's
01:18a conversation that continues. That was the impression I was left with the conversation
01:22out of the Oval Office, is that both President Trump and Secretary Rubio were there. They engaged
01:28and answered questions about what's coming forward, what's possible. The President indicated he still
01:34thinks peace is possible. The Secretary has added, though, that if this is going to end, it's really
01:40going to take the two parties to make that decision. They're going to have to make that decision.
01:44Can I ask? What I would say about Crimea is what President Trump has said. I'm sure you saw that
01:51Truth Social post. And I'll read a little bit of that. We can have that in the record. President
01:57Trump on Truth Social noted, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is boasting on the front page of the
02:03Wall Street Journal that Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There's nothing
02:08to talk about here, end quote. The statement is very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia
02:14in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Obama and is not even a point of
02:21discussion. Now, his message continues, but that was the general point about Crimea from the President
02:30himself. And were you going to follow up on something else after that?
02:34Well, just generally, the issue of Crimea and of territory that is now controlled by Russia,
02:46does the Secretary believe that a balanced proposal would have Russia also making some concessions?
02:53The Secretary has made statements actually recently in an interview, and I'll read some of those
03:01comments. I think he has also said, though, that there's going to have to be concessions on both sides.
03:10He's made that clear. We also know that the details of those concessions were not going to be discussed
03:15or agreed upon until there was a ceasefire. And that dynamic still exists. But the Secretary has been
03:21clear from the start that there would be concessions from both sides in this regard. He has also said,
03:27I remain hopeful that we can get something done because this is a terrible war and it needs to end.
03:32He also says that there is no military solution to this war. Russia is not just going to roll over
03:38Ukraine and take the whole country, and Ukraine's not going to push them all the way back to where
03:42they were before 2014. He says we have a better understanding of the Russians' position now because
03:48we've actually spoken to them after three years of not speaking to them. And at some point we
03:54determined that we're just too far apart and not – and I should say if at some point we determine that
03:59we're just too far apart and not enough movement is happening, we may need to move on to other
04:04priorities because there's a lot of important things happening in the world. Lastly, ultimately,
04:10it's not up to us. It's up to Russia and it's up to Ukraine. They have to make the decision that
04:16they're willing to move closer to one another and we need to see progress.