Sec. Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz speak with reporters on Tuesday after Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire proposal.
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00:00Accepting our proposal for a full ceasefire, uh, which you can see the
00:06details of which are in our joint statement that we released together.
00:10But we also got into substantive details on how this war is going to
00:16permanently end. Uh, what type of guarantees they're going to have for
00:21their long term security and prosperity, but also, uh, really looking at what
00:28it's going to take to finally end this, uh, the horrific fighting. Uh, the
00:34other piece that I just want to make very clear is President Trump started,
00:39uh, this diplomatic effort in the Oval Office talking to both leaders, both
00:44President Putin and President Zelensky back to back. And now, uh, that shuttle
00:50diplomacy continues. We have a named delegation in terms of next steps from
00:56the Russian side. We have a named delegation in terms of next steps from
01:00the Ukrainian side. Uh, I will talk to my Russian counterpart, uh, in the
01:06coming days. Uh, Secretary Rubio will be with G seven foreign ministers. Uh,
01:12in, uh, in the next couple of days, we have the NATO Secretary General in the
01:18White House on Thursday. Uh, and we'll take, uh, we'll take the process forward
01:24from there. So, uh, as a result of that, and I think as a result of, uh, of
01:30this positive step forward, the president has decided to lift the pause
01:35on aid and on our security assistance to Ukraine going forward, and that's
01:41effective immediately. All right. Your colleagues have chosen three
01:44questioners. Let's start with Alex Marquardt of CNN. Thank you. Several
01:48questions on the ceasefire. We understood that coming into this, this
01:51was a Ukrainian proposal for a partial ceasefire. How did this become an
01:56American proposal for an immediate 30 days ceasefire? And to be clear, you're
02:01talking about a complete ceasefire across the front line, not just the
02:05aerial and maritime ceasefire that the Ukrainians proposed. And then finally,
02:10how do you expect to take this to the Russians? Is it Mr Whitcoff, who we
02:15understand is heading to Moscow later this week? Will he deliver that to
02:17Putin? Will it be President Trump to President Putin? Will it be you
02:20and your counterparts? How will that actually happen? And when? Well, on the
02:23first point, your question is yes, it's that's the offer. The offer is to stop
02:28the shooting. The goal here is the only way out to end this war is to negotiate
02:32out of it. There's no military solution to this war. The solution to this war
02:36and the way to end it and to achieve the president's objective of peace is
02:41to negotiate. But before you can negotiate, you have to stop shooting at
02:44each other. And that's what the president has wanted to see. And that's
02:47what that's the commitment we got today from the Ukrainian side, their
02:49willingness to do that. Obviously, now that will be delivered to the Russians,
02:52it will be delivered to them directly through multiple channels, meaning not
02:56only will they obviously see it, but we've are, you know, it will be
02:59communicated in through our diplomatic channels, through conversations and
03:02other methods. But they'll obviously be well aware. And our hope is that the
03:05Russians will say yes, that they will also agree. So the shooting will stop.
03:09The killing will stop. The dying will stop. And the talks can begin about how
03:13to end this war permanently in a way that's acceptable and enduring for both
03:17sides. Look, there's been all kinds of discussions in terms of different types
03:23of cease fires. You know, there was there was the deal in terms of grain
03:29moving years ago. There's been discussion of halting aerial attacks on
03:35each other's infrastructure. The president has made it clear and
03:39certainly made it clear to us that all fighting needs to stop on. The
03:43Ukrainians have agreed to that proposal. They're ready for peace on
03:49now. We'll take that to the Russians and get their response. All right,
03:53next, Jennifer Jacobs. Great. Hi. Are you expecting any goodwill gestures
03:59from Russia? Do you have a deadline in mind for when you're hoping for them
04:03to reciprocate on that? Well, we're gonna take the offer to them. We're
04:08gonna tell him this is what's on the table. Ukraine is ready to stop
04:11shooting and start talking. And now it will be up to them to say yes or no. I
04:15hope they're going to say yes. And if they do, then I think we made great
04:17progress. If they say no, then we'll unfortunately know what the impediment
04:21is to peace here. But the president's been abundantly clear. He wants the
04:24shooting to stop. He wants the warfare to stop. He wants the dying and the
04:27suffering to stop. And he believes, and rightfully so, that the only way to end
04:32this war is to negotiate an end to it. And we think that it's always easier to
04:35negotiate an end to the war when people aren't shooting at each other. That's
04:38how the president believes. That's what we hope to achieve. The Ukrainians
04:41today have expressed their willingness and readiness to do so immediately. We
04:44hope the Russians answer to that will also be yes. But no deadline. Well, the
04:48deadline is we hope to do this as soon as possible. Every day that goes by
04:51that's war continues. People die. People are bombed. People are hurt on both
04:54sides of this conflict. The president wanted this war to end yesterday and
04:58the day before the president's been clear he wants peace. And so we wanted
05:02to see it as soon as possible. So our hope is that the Russians will answer
05:05yes as quickly as possible so we can get to the second phase of this, which
05:08is real negotiations, not never ending dialogue, you know, talk forever, but
05:13real negotiations to end this conflict in a way that's acceptable to both
05:17sides, sustainable, and that ensures the stability and security of Ukraine for
05:21the long term.
05:26Look, we've discussed a number of things. Prisoner exchanges, you know,
05:32folks that were detained and what have you. But the fighting has to stop. I
05:36mean, that's what we agreed today. And just think about it. Uh, we've gone
05:40from if the war is going to end to now how the war is going to end. And this
05:45was this was an important first step. And that was under President Trump's
05:48leadership. He has literally moved the entire global conversation to where we
05:53had a very senior Ukrainian delegation with us today. We've had engagements
05:57with our Russian counterparts, and now it's how the war is going to end. And
06:02that's under President Trump's leadership. Just to answer your
06:04question one more time. Um, the goal here is peace. That's the president's
06:08goal. Um, the number the best goodwill gesture the Russians can provide is to
06:12say yes to say yes to the offer that the Ukrainians have made to stop the
06:17shooting, to stop the fighting and get to the table. If they do that, that's
06:21the best goodwill sign we could see. Obviously, as part of that negotiation,
06:25as we're talking about how to end this conflict, there will be a lot of issues
06:27to unravel among them, not the least of which is the humanitarian concerns. The
06:31Children, the prisoners of war, all the things that sadly come with these
06:35conflicts. But the number one goodwill gesture we could see from the Russians
06:38is to see the Ukrainian offer and reciprocate it with a yes.
06:42And next for Reuters, Daphne solid. Thank you so much. Could you clarify
06:48what security assistance will be resumed? Does this include the P. A. S.
06:52And why wasn't the mineral steel signed today? What are the outstanding issues
06:56there? And if I may, is the relationship with Ukrainian President Zelensky back
07:00on track? Do you back him? Well, let me answer the second or the third. You
07:04had to. And then I'll let the security advisor talk about the defense and
07:08security assistance on the second question. Well, let me answer first on
07:11the minerals deal as as as part of our communication today. You know, that is
07:16something that was negotiated through our Treasury and his counterpart on the
07:18Ukrainian side. And so the president and you see that express both presidents
07:22will instruct the appropriate members of our governments to bring the finality,
07:27the signature of the deal and the signature of this agreement. So that
07:31was communicated today, and that's going to happen. That was not the subject of
07:34our talks today. I thought I made, you know, I expressed that on our way in
07:37our we were here in pursuit of peace. That doesn't mean the minerals deal is
07:40not very important. It most certainly is. And we expressed that today in the
07:43statements we put out jointly that the president, our respective presidents
07:47have instructed the appropriate members of other other governments to bring
07:51this to finality and to conclusion. The second part of your question was, does
07:56the security system? No, there was one after that.
08:01Yeah, what's back on track here? Hopefully is peace. That's what matters
08:04the most. I know everyone's looking for who likes. This is this is serious
08:08stuff. Okay, we're not. This is not mean girls. This is not some episode of
08:11some television show. This is very serious. People are gonna today. People
08:14will die in this war. They died yesterday, and sadly, unless there's a
08:17cease fire tonight, they'll die tomorrow. The president wants that to
08:20stop. That's what he's interested in here. That's why we came here. That's
08:24why we're grateful for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosting us here. And what
08:27we left leave here with today is a commitment that the Ukrainians are
08:30ready to stop fighting. They're ready to stop the shooting so that they can
08:34get to the table and bring about peace for their country and for the world on
08:37the security. Well, I mean, I just can't echo enough. President Trump's
08:42president of peace. That's what he's demanding, and he's willing to take
08:45tough measures on on all sides, uh, to drive that home. And in terms of the
08:50security assistance, it's the current presidential drawdown authority. I'll
08:54refer to the Defense Department on the each is of what munition was where in
08:58the process, but it's the current PDA that will that will proceed to the
09:03Ukrainians. All right, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
09:08Thanks for your patience. Yeah, thanks for your patience.
09:12That's wrong.
09:16Well, at least we have something reporting.