The US government remains prepared to play a mediating role in the war between Russia and Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today, in the wake of massive missile strikes on Kiev and Moscow’s warning that such operations will continue.
“The United States is ready and willing to do everything it can to facilitate an end to this war, and we hope that the opportunity will present itself at some given moment,” Mr Rubio told reporters as he continued his official visit to India after speaking on the phone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
On Saturday night into Sunday, Russian armed forces launched dozens of missiles and hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles against Kiev and its surroundings, with authorities saying four people were killed, days after Ukrainian drones carried out a deadly raid on a high school in a Ukrainian region occupied by Russia.
“Every time you see these big blows from one side and the other you are reminded why this is a terrible war (…) and it must end,” he said.
Russia yesterday urged foreigners in Ukraine’s capital, especially diplomatic staff, to leave Kiev on Monday because the armed forces would begin systematic bombing of “decision-making centres” and “companies in the military-industrial complex”, a message Lavrov repeated to his counterpart, according to his services.
For his part, Mr Rubio noted that Moscow had warned “all embassies”, not just the US embassy.
