Sanctions could push russia away from peace talks - Rubio

US President Donald Trump believes that the aggressor country of russia is likely to walk away from peace talks on Ukraine if the US threatens new sanctions.

This was stated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Bloomberg reports.

“If you start threatening sanctions, the russians will stop talking. And it is important for us to be able to talk to them and get them to the negotiating table,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Tuesday.

Rubio’s comments came under pressure from Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, on whether the administration plans to impose more sanctions on russia or send more weapons to Ukraine.

Recall, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States has not stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine, but there are currently no decisions on the formation of new packages.

Rubio also suggested that russian leader vladimir putin did not get the war in Ukraine that he imagined. According to Rubio, putin expected that the Ukrainian government would fall and he would be greeted as a liberator.