Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a United Nations Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you, Mr. President, and all of you for convening here today on this important matter. When President Trump took office, he made it among his highest priorities the restoration of peace anywhere and everywhere in the world where the opportunity presented itself. And it's met with great success in a number of places.

We had a conflict between India and Pakistan, which was a very dangerous conflict, and one that he chose to engage in and was able to bring it to - be very involved in bringing it to a cessation of hostilities.

When Thailand and Cambodia were engaged in hostilities, the President got involved over a weekend - a weekend over in the United States - and were able to play a critical role in that regard as well.

We are very grateful to some of the countries in this room that were helpful in that regard with the DRC and Rwanda, and work remains to be done. But again, a conflict that presents grave dangers and extraordinary humanitarian challenges.

With Azerbaijan and Armenia as well, he has become involved and we were able to sign an agreement at the White House very recently that hopefully prevents a future conflict which would prove costly and deadly.

But the one that's proved to be an extraordinarily[1] challenge has been the war in Ukraine, between Russia and Ukraine. The President has worked on it tirelessly, has invested a tremendous amount of his own time, energy, and the highest levels of our government. We have had meetings in Türkiye, meetings in Saudi Arabia, meetings in Alaska, countless phone calls, doing everything possible to bring this conflict to a resolution and to an end - a war that cannot end militarily. It will end at a negotiating table. That's where this war will end. But the longer it lasts, the more people will die, the more will be destroyed.

Some of the numbers we are seeing in the loss of life among military personnel, for example on the Russian Federation's side, are staggering. Staggering. In one month alone, more losses - more loss of life than in the entirety of the U.S. engagement in Afghanistan or Iraq. This war has to end, and we have done everything we possibly can, and will continue to do everything we possibly can, to bring it to an end.

Very generous offers have been made. For example, a ceasefire at the current lines of contact while all the other details on this - on the future of the conflict could be worked out in terms of future territorial lines. The President has shown extraordinary patience in terms of not assessing additional sanctions in the hopes of having a breakthrough in this regard. And all has come to what appears to be not just a stagnant one, but an era and - we've entered a period of what appears to be potential even escalation, with some - the historically highest number of strikes we've seen over the last few nights and before, and now we are also watching incursions into neighboring airspace by both drones and airplanes.

The President is a very patient man, he's very committed to peace, but his patience is not infinite. And as he has said repeatedly, he has before him the opportunity and the options of imposing additional economic costs on the Russian Federation, if necessary, in order to bring this to an end. He also has before him the option, as he has already chosen to do in some circumstances, to sell defensive weaponry, and potentially offensive weaponry, so that Ukraine can defend itself from this assault by purchasing that weaponry.

So I'm here to say to the Security Council the United States remains as committed as it has ever been to a peaceful resolution to this dangerous conflict. But there will come a moment in which we will have to conclude that perhaps there is no interest in a peaceful resolution, and then the President has before him real options, which he intends to pursue, as he has made clear today in some of the messages he has put out.

So I strongly urge the Security Council, the member-states here, and those who are not part of this as well, to do everything in their power - and including the Russian Federation to do everything within their power, and the Ukrainian side for that matter as well - but all sides, to bring this war to an end before it becomes something that will last another three or four years, lead to more destruction, both economic, and at the same time, loss of life and loss of property and loss of futures. This war needs to end. But if it does not - if there is no path to peace in the short term - then the United States and President Donald J. Trump will take the steps necessary to impose costs for continued aggression.

Thank you.

[1] extraordinary

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